1. X-bar Schema Linguistics lecture series
Debasri Chakrabarti
cse.iitb.ac.in
CFILT
Saturday, February 02, 2019

2. 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
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

3. 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
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

4. 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
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

5. 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
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

6. 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.
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

7. 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.
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

8. X-bar Schema XP spec X X adjunct X complement
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

9. 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.
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

10. 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
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

11. 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
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

12. 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:आईनस्टाईन की तसवीर
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

13. 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.
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

14. 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` रोटी खायी] ]
[NP [N` वह लम्बा लड़का] ]
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

15. Position of Complement and Adjunct in X-barNP
det N`
the N` PP
in the cabinet meeting N PP
discussion
of the cricket match
The discussion of the cricket match in the cabinet meeting
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

16. Logical Possibilities of Phrase Structure1. XP XP 2. X`
spec X` X X
NP: cows
NP: the boys
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

17. Logical Possibilities of Phrase Structure4. 3. XP XP X`
spec X` X
comp X
comp
AP: fond of sweets
NP: a student of NLP
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

18. Logical Possibilities of Phrase Structure5. XP
spec X` X`
adjunct X
comp
NP: a student of NLP in IIT
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

19. 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.
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

20. 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: हमें यह लगता है कि वह आज नहीं आयेगा।
Assuming Uniformity these items must be maximal projection of some category.
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

21. 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.
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

22. Tree diagram CP spec C` C IP That it is your umbrella
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

23. 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.
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

24. Exercise 2
Identify the specifiers, complements and adjuncts in each of the following phrases.
the reason that we can’t afford it
The tall boy
John loves Mary deeply.
Put the book on the table.
those boys in the class
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

25. 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
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema

26. References Theory of Language- Steven E. Weisler Slavko Milekic
Principle and Parameter Theory
- Peter E. Culicover
Saturday, February 02, 2019
X-bar schema