Phrase Structure in Natural Language

1: Modularity in Underlying Structure.- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 On Defining Grammatical Relations in a Modular Theory.- 1.3 What is a Lexical Entry?.- 1.3.1 Overview.- 1.3.2 The Semantic Portion of a Lexical Entry: Lexical Conceptual Structure and the Definition of Thematic Roles.- 1.3.3 The Syntactic Portion of the Lexical Entry: Predicate Argument Structure (The Theta Grid).- 1.3.4 Summary.- 1.4 The Organization of Argument Structure: the Thematic Hierarchy.- 1.5 Case Theory and the Lexicon.- 1.6 S and S?: Extended X-bar Theory and the Lexical Clause Hypothesis.- 1.7 Dominance, Precedence and Phrase Markers.- Notes.- 2: Syntactic Projection and Licensing.- 2.1 Preliminaries: Licensing, the UTAH, the Projection Principle and the Theta Criterion.- 2.2 X-bar Theory and the Projection of Heads.- 2.2.1 Introduction.- 2.2.2 Formal and Informal Versions of X-bar Theory.- 2.2.3 Against Intermediate Bar Levels.- 2.2.4 Project Alpha.- 2.2.5 Consequences of Project Alpha.- 2.2.5.1 Automatic Pruning.- 2.2.5.2 No Restriction on Number of Specifiers.- 2.2.5.3 Adjuncts and Adjunction Structures.- 2.2.5.4 On Small Clauses.- 2.2.6 Licensing Grammars are not Phrase Structure Grammars.- 2.3 Licensing Non-head Daughters: Thematic Grids and Thematic Relations.- 2.3.1 Grids and Grid Relations.- 2.3.2 Deriving the UTAH: Projection and the Thematic Hierarchy.- 2.3.2.1 D-Structure and the Thematic Hierarchy.- 2.3.2.2 On the Structure of VP.- 2.3.2.3 A Tentative LCS-Based Account of the Dative Alternation.- 2.3.3 Mapping from Argument Structure to D-Structure.- 2.3.4 Agentive Predicates and the Projection of Empty Verbal Heads.- 2.3.5 Cognitive Categories and Syntactic Categories.- 2.3.6 On the Notion 'External Argument'.- 2.3.6.1 Predication and Argument Prominence.- 2.3.6.2 How are External Arguments External?.- 2.3.6.3 On the Maximal Constituency of VP.- 2.4 Functional Categories and Licensing.- 2.5 Summary.- Notes.- 3: On Configurationality Parameters.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 Parametric Variation in D-Structure Principles.- 3.3 What is a Nonconfigurational Language?.- 3.3.1 Subject/Object Asymmetries in English.- 3.3.1.1 Verb plus Object Act as a Surface Constituent.- 3.3.1.2 Asymmetric Influence on Thematic Role.- 3.3.1.3 Idioms.- 3.3.1.4 Some Verbs are Intransitive but all Verbs Take a Subject.- 3.3.1.5 Subject but not Object Position May Contain Null Pronominal.- 3.3.1.6 No Nominative Reflexive.- 3.3.1.7 The Binding Facts.- 3.3.1.8 Weak Crossover.- 3.3.1.9 ECP Facts.- 3.3.1.10 Incorporation.- 3.3.1.11 Summary.- 3.3.2 Variation in Underlying Structure and the Dual Representation Hypothesis.- 3.4 The Empirical Evidence for D-Structure Variation.- 3.4.1 The Structure of Japanese.- 3.4.1.1 Subject/Object Asymmetries in Japanese.- 3.4.1.2 Evidence for a Flat Structure in Japanese.- 3.4.2 The Structure of Malayalam.- 3.4.2.1 Subject/Object Asymmetries in Malayalam.- 3.4.2.2 Evidence for a Flat Structure in Malayalam.- 3.4.3 The Structure of Warlpiri.- 3.4.3.1 Subject/Object Asymmetries in Warlpiri.- 3.4.3.2 Evidence for a Flat Structure in Warlpiri.- 3.4.3.3 An Analysis: Warlpiri KP Adjuncts as Modifiers.- 3.4.3.4 The Typological Position of Warlpiri.- 3.4.4 The Structure of Hungarian.- 3.4.4.1 Subject/Object Asymmetries in Hungarian.- 3.4.4.2 Evidence for a Flat Structure in Hungarian.- 3.4.5 The Structure of VSO Languages.- 3.4.5.1 Subject/Object Asymmetries in VSO Languages.- 3.4.5.2 Evidence for a Flat Structure in VSO Languages.- 3.5 Summary and Conclusions.- Notes.- 4: Projection, Pronouns, and Parsing in Navajo Syntax.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 An Overview of Navajo Syntax and Morphology.- 4.2.1 The Syntax of Navajo.- 4.2.2 The Verbal Morphology of Navajo.- 4.2.3 Subject/Object Asymmetries in Navajo.- 4.3 Parsing, Null Arguments, and Grammatical Relations in Navajo.- 4.3.1 Grammatical Relations and Gaps in Simple Sentences.- 4.3.2 Platero's Principle for Interpretation of Grammatical Relations.- 4.3.3 Null Objects and Null Topics in Navajo.- 4.3.4 Navajo Relative Clauses and the Parallel Function Constraint.- 4.4 On Navajo Nominals as Adjuncts.- 4.5 Navajo Agreement and Incorporated Pronouns.- 4.5.1 Syntactic Accessibility of Morphemes and the Lexical Integrity Hypothesis.- 4.5.2 Navajo Pronominal Clitics as Infixes.- 4.5.3 Agreement vs. Incorporation: Navajo bi as Incorporated Pronoun.- 4.5.4 INFL in Navajo.- 4.6 Conclusion: Projection from the Lexicon in Navajo.- Notes.- 5: Concluding Remarks.- References.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.

`Her book deserves a reading by anyone interested in questions of phrase structure.'
Language, 69
`Speas' book is a unique and comprehensive presentation of how syntactic structure is projected from lexical items, and how the syntactic diversity of the world's languages might consequently be seen from a unified perspective. Highly readable in its overview of the theoretical backgroud, and in its account of new developments and their consequences, this is a valuable and stimulating textbook for any course in syntactic structure and typological variation.'
Kenneth L. Hale, MIT, Cambridge, USA