Arguments for the category of verb phrase

The category VP has since the late 1950s attracted a considerable amount of interest in both formally and functionally oriented linguistics, though in the latter to a lesser extent. There is a substantial amount of disagreement amongst linguists as to the status of this category, and as to its nature and extent amongst those who adopt it. Unfortunately, however, the literature contains few if any convincing arguments either for or against the category, most linguists apparently being content to accept, reject or ignore it as their intuitions or theoretical percepts guide them, and on the basis of quite flimsy evidence. In this paper I attempt to present some evidence in support of the category. It is impossible, of course, to do this in a theory-neutral way; the challenge in developing arguments is to deploy theoretical constructs as little as possible.