Ibn Zohr University-Agadir/Morocco

Faculty of Arts and Humanities

English Studies

INTRODUCTION TO SYNTAX

Syntactic Representation
• Introducing X-bar Theory
• Implementing X-bar Schema to Lexical
Categories

Online Lecture N° 6

Prof. Mohamed ELGHAZI

Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI

FLSH/UIZ. AGADIR
 Introduction to Syntax
Course Outline (1/2)
0. Introduction (◄== done before in classroom lectures)
• The Main objectives of the Linguistic Theory
• What is Syntax?
• Why do we need to study Syntax?
1. Syntactic Relations (◄== done before in classroom lectures)
• Positional relations
• Relations of substitutability
• Relations of co-occurrence
2. Syntactic Functions (◄== done before in classroom lectures)
• Subject
• Object
• Complement
• Modifier
Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI
2
FLSH/UIZ. AGADIR
 Introduction to Syntax
Course Outline (2/2)
3. Syntactic Categories (◄== sent to you before)
• Syntactic categories: Terminological Remarks
• Syntactic categories: Definition & Defining Criteria
• Syntactic Categories: Inventory and Characteristics
1. Lexical Categories/Words (= Open Categories)
2. Functional Categories/Words (= Closed Categories)
3. Inflectional Categories/Bound affixes (= Closed Categories)
4. Syntactic structures
• Phrase Structure
– Constituents
– Verbal Constituents
• Argument Structure
(we are here now)
▼
5. Syntactic Representations
• Introducing X-bar Theory
• Unifying the X-bar Schema of Lexical Categories
• Extending the X-bar Schema to Functional and Inflectional Categories
• Levels of Representation
6. Syntactic Operations (◄ weIntroduction
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 Introducing X-bar Theory

• It should be evident by now that a sentence is not just a string of

words put next to each other.
• In a sentence words combine to form units which in turn
combine to form larger units.
• In other words, there is a hierarchy in the ordering of words
within a sentence
• In the forthcoming slides, we will examine the different levels of
hierarchy that can be identified within a sentence.
• Ultimately we want to derive an abstract schema which is
common to all the word categories introduced in the previous
sections.
Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI
FLSH/UIZ. AGADIR
 Introducing X-bar Theory
X-bar Schema

This abstract schema is called X-bar Theory, represented by means

of a tree diagram as shown below
XP

(Specifier) X'

X (Complement)

So, X-bar Theory is a theory of syntactic representation.

Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI

FLSH/UIZ. AGADIR
 X-bar Theory
Terminological Clarifications

• Before we proceed, some useful terminological clarifications are in

order :
• First, X or X-bar are variables which are very common in
mathematics;
• Why do we have them in such a linguistic theory?
• Answer: Chomsky is obsessed with mathematical abstraction of
linguistic theory and he tries to build his theory that is most general
and ultimately reveals the language universals underlying all human
languages.
• That is why, he advanced this X-bar theory.
• Second, why do we say that it is “a theory”?
• Answer: Simply because it was first proposed by Noam
Chomsky (1970), further developed by other linguists. Yet, it is still
subject to further modification and improvement
Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI
FLSH/UIZ. AGADIR
 X-bar Theory
Two Important Claims

• How different is it from the previous systems of syntactic

representation?
• X-bar theory embodies two independent claims:
• First, that phrase structure is hierarchically built on three level
categories instead of two.
• Second, that this system of projected constituency may be
common to more than one category. It is generalized to all types
of categories (e.g., N, V, A, P, TAM; Agr, Neg etc.).

Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI

FLSH/UIZ. AGADIR
 X-bar Theory
Category Levels

• What does the first claim mean?

• Answer: In simply means that in previous syntactic traditions only two
level constituents/categories are recognized:
• A word-level category: it consists of units such as simple nouns,
simple verbs, simple adjectives…etc.
• A phrase-level category which consists of phrases like a noun phrase a
verb phrase an adjective phrase…etc.
• Chomsky argues that this taxonomy of two level categories should be
extended to include a third type of category intermediate between
word level categories and phrase level categories.
• For example, Chomsky suggest to add an intermediate nominal
constituent larger than N (noun) but smaller than NP (Noun Phrase).
Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI
FLSH/UIZ. AGADIR
 X-bar Theory
Generalizing the X-bar Schema

In the second claim, Chomsky postulates that this system of representation

called X-bar Schema can be generalized to all types of categories be they
o lexical categories N, V, Adj, Adv,
o Functional such as prepositions, Complementizers, Negative
parkers…or even
o Inflectional categories, A, M, Agr, …etc.

• In what follows, we will begin our analysis by considering the X-bar

schema of these lexical categories
 Noun Phrase
 Adjective Phrase
 Adverb Phrase
 Verb Phrase
Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI
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 Noun Phrase X-bar Schema
• Consider the following construct :
This intelligent student
The whole nominal construct is an NP. This is considered a phrase level
category.
It consists of a Determiner (this), an Adj (intelligent), the head N
(student); all of which are considered word level categories.
But, where is the intermediate nominal category?
Answer: We said in the section of constituency tests that substitution is
one of the efficient tools that are used to identify and determine syntactic
constituents/categories. So, let us consider the substitution operation
below:
a. Which [intelligent student]? b. This [one]
[one] is a preform which substitutes for [intelligent student] (=Adj+N);
(but not the whole NP which consists of (=Det+Adj+N).
This entails that [intelligent student] (=Adj+N) is an intermediate
nominal constituent larger than the head N but smaller than the whole NP.
. Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI
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 More Evidence for N-bar Constituent
• Another kind of evidence in favor of the postulated intermediate
nominal category also comes from NPs with post modifiers such as:
The present [king of England] is more popular than the last [one]
• [one] is a preform which substitutes for [king of England] (=N+PP);
(but not the whole NP which consists of (=Det+Adj+N+PP).
• Therefore, we can conclude that [king of England] is an N-bar
constituent larger than N but smaller than NP.
• Further support in favor of this observation comes from coordination
facts as illustrated below:
He is an [intelligent student] and [excellent actor]
• Since coordination joins only parallel constituents, so [intelligent
student] and [excellent actor] are parallel constituents larger than
single nouns but smaller than full-fledged NPs since they do not
include the determiner [an].
• Concluding, both pro-form test and coordination test provide strong
empirical evidence in favor of positing an N-bar category which can be
represented in a position higher than simple N and lower than NP;
Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI
FLSH/UIZ. AGADIR
 Noun Phrase X-bar Schema

Therefore the X-bar schema of the NPs above will have the
following representation:
a. An intelligent student b. The king of England
NP NP

Spec N’ Spec N’
an the
Adj N N PP
intelligent student king of England

Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI

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 Adjective Phrase X-bar Schema

• Now, it is time to consider the second claim embodied in

X-bar Theory.
• That is, we will see how this system of representation can
be extended to the other syntactic categories.
• we will justify how the X-bar schema testified on NPs can
be generalized to the other lexical categories.
• We start by the X-bar schema of the Adjective phrase.

Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI

FLSH/UIZ. AGADIR
 Adjective Phrase X-bar Schema
• To get our discussion on a concrete footing, let’s consider the
structure of the bracketed AdjP below:
• John is [very fond of Mary]
• [ very] is the familiar category of determiner. It can also be called
Specifier.
• [Fond] is the head of the adjectival phrase;
• [ of Mary] is a PP which functions as a post-modifier (in
generative syntax, it is also called a complement) of fond.
• NB: the range of determiners which modify an Adjective overlap
to a great extent with the range of Determiners which can modify
an Noun.
• Some of the Adjetival Determiners are very, so, how, quite, too,
that… etc.
Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI
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 Adjective Phrase X-bar Schema (cont..)

• Following the X-bar schema given before, we shall suggest

that the above AdjP [very fond of Mary] has this structure:
AdjP

Spec Adj’
very
Adj PP
fond of Mary
 More Evidence for Adj-bar Constituent

• One argument in support of the above structure is based on coordination facts:

John is very [fond of Mary] and [proud of her]
• Since only constituents of the same syntactic category can be coordinated.
• So, we can safely conclude that [fond of Mary] is an intermediate Adj
constituent larger that the head Adj [fond] and smaller than the whole AdjP [=
very fond of Mary].
• Furthermore argument can also inferred from the pro-form test: Notice that
only the sequence [fond of Mary] can be replaced by the pro-form so , but not
the whole AdjP [= very fond of Mary], as illustrated below:
John used to be very [proud of Mary], but now he is much less [so]
On the assumption that only a unitary constituent can be replaced by a pro-form,
then it seems clear that [proud of Mary] must be an intermediate adjectival
constituent that is replaced by [so] in the above structure.

Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI

FLSH/UIZ. AGADIR
 Adverb Phrase X-bar Schema

Given the obvious parallelism between AdjPs and their AdvPs

counterpart as in the illustrations bellow:
Complete utter fools
Completely utterly foolish
And given the fact both Adjectives and Adverbs permit the same
range of Determiner as illustrated below:
Her work is very/quite/so/too/rather carless
She works very/quite/so/too/rather carelessly
So, we might suggest that just as AdjP can be represented by X-bar
schema, so too the corresponding AdvPs can be characterized by
the same schema.

Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI

FLSH/UIZ. AGADIR
 Adverb Phrase X-bar Schema

Thus, an AdvP like the one below can be represented as follows:

He made up his mind [quite independently of me]
AdvP

Spec Adv’
quite
Adv PP
independently of me

Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI

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 Verb Phrase X-bar Schema

In this subsection, we also argue in favour of the postulation that a

VP can also be represented by an X-bar schema exactly like NP,
AdjP, and AdvP.
Thus for, we will show that a V and its complement together form a
V-bar constituent , and that V-bar can be expanded by the addition
of appropriate specifiers (viz. Auxiliaries have and be) into a V-
double- bar constituent.

Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI

FLSH/UIZ. AGADIR
 Verb Phrase X-bar Schema

Given this assumption a VP such as :

John may [be reading an interesting book]
Might have a structure along the following lines:
VP

Spec V’
be
V NP
reading an interesting book

Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI

FLSH/UIZ. AGADIR
 Verb Phrase X-bar Schema

• There are empirical pieces of evidence which support the

distinction of a V-bar from a VP.
• First, only V-bar, not a whole VP, can be fronted as in the
construction below:

They swore that John might [ have been taking heroin], and
taking heroin he might [have been------].

Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI

FLSH/UIZ. AGADIR
 Verb Phrase X-bar Schema

• Second, the substitution test called the do-so test, also lands support to
the distinction between V-bar and VP constituents; consider the
following structure:

a. The intelligent student may be [listening to this interesting

lesson at home now] and his friend may be [ doing so] too.

• In (a) do so substitutes for the verbal constituent [listening to this

interesting lesson at home now]. This constituent is larger than the
verb [write] alone, and it is smaller than the whole VP [may be
listening to this interesting lesson at home now].
• Based on the do-so test we conclude that [listening to this interesting
lesson at home now] is an intermediate structure btween V and VP. So,
the latter forms a constituent called V' (V- bar).
Introduction to Syntax Prof. M. .ELGHAZI
FLSH/UIZ. AGADIR
 Summary
Can you provide a summary of this section in this slide space?
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