Phrase Structure in Natural Language

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

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. 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. 3 Licensing Non-head Daughters: Thematic Grids and Thematic Relations. - 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. 4 The Empirical Evidence for D-Structure Variation. - 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. 3 Parsing, Null Arguments, and Grammatical Relations in Navajo. - 4. 4 On Navajo Nominals as Adjuncts. - 4. 5 Navajo Agreement and Incorporated Pronouns. - 4. 6 Conclusion: Projection from the Lexicon in Navajo. - Notes. - 5: Concluding Remarks. - References. - Index of Names. - Index of Subjects.