Open AccessBare Phrase Structure and Specifier-less Syntax
Author(s) -
K. A. Jayaseelan
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
biolinguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1450-3417
DOI - 10.5964/bioling.8623
Subject(s) - specifier , antisymmetry , determiner phrase , phrase , syntax , merge (version control) , computer science , endocentric and exocentric , complement (music) , phrase structure rules , branching (polymer chemistry) , noun phrase , simple (philosophy) , sequence (biology) , linguistics , natural language processing , mathematics , artificial intelligence , philosophy , materials science , chemistry , noun , generative grammar , composite material , genetics , biology , biochemistry , epistemology , information retrieval , complementation , gene , phenotype
It is pointed out that “specifiers” render the algorithm of projection overly complex. This consideration lends support to Starke’s (2004) reanalysis of specifiers as phrasal heads that project their own phrases — which makes phrase structure a simple sequence of head-complement relations. It is further pointed out that if head-complement relations are represented using dominance in place of sisterhood, to reflect the essentially asymmetrical nature of Merge (Chomsky 2000), a non-branching (partially linear) phrase structure tree is obtained that very naturally eliminates labels and projections. A simple Spell-Out rule then provides a linear ordering of the terminal elements. The linear tree preserves all the major results of antisymmetry.