-
Verb Phrase In Kurama
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 4]
Page 3 of 4
-
-
-
1.6.1 X-BAR THEORY
Lamidi (2000:150) states that x-bar theory is based on the theory of
phrase structure. It defines the nature of the type of syntactic
categories available to any language. The central notion of x-bar theory
is that each of the major lexical categories (Noun, Verb, Preposition
and Adjective is the head of the same category (Noun; NP, Verb; VP,
Preposition; PP, Adjective; AP). In essence, X-bar theory defines
possible phrase structure configuration in language for instance, the
phrase.
“A new bagâ€
lijaun asawa
bag new
“Eat the foodâ€
ÙlÃyá apúwuniya
Eat food.
In the above phrases, “a large bag†consists of a head “bag†while “eat
the food†consist of a head “eatâ€. Horrocks (1987) also states that the
core of x- bar theory is the recognition of the fact that most phrases
have head upon which other elements in the constituents are dependent.
The x-bar theory projects from the core projection level to the maximal
projection level. This is called Projection Principle.
1.6.2 PROJECTION PRINCIPLE
Chomsky (1981:29) says “representation at each syntactic level is
projected from the lexicon, in that they observe the subcategorization
proper of lexical properties to be projected to all level of syntactic
representation for instance, a lexical item projects from its zero bar
level to one (single) bar level which is optional, then to double bar
level. The zero bar level is referred to as the core projection level,
the single bar level is referred to as the Intermediate Projection Level
and the double bar level is referred to as the Maximal Projection
Level. The illustration is shown below.
X11 Maximal Projection level
X1 Intermediate Projection
Level
X0 Core Projection level
Horrocks (1987:99) states that x-bar theory tells us that a lexical
head (X) and its complements form a constituent (Xi) and that any
specifier of this form with a high level of constituent (Xii) thus:
X11
Spec X1
X0 Comp
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 4]
Page 3 of 4
-
