Cover not available

In:Footprints of Phrase Structure: Studies in syntax in honour of Tim Stowell
Edited by María J. Arche, Jan-Wouter Zwart, Hamida Demirdache and Hagit Borer
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 288] 2025
► pp. 2–19

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

On the origins of phrase structure

 | Queen Mary University of London
Published online: 2 October 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.288.01bor
Abstract
In his doctoral dissertation and subsequent work, Stowell outlined a research agenda based on replacing phrase structure rules with general universal constraints that can give rise to a constrained hierarchical structure without recourse to arbitrary statements of hierarchy and order. This agenda ushered in a new era in formal syntax, with the next two decades seeing the disappearance from the formal tool kit of syntactic rewrite rules, and with the emergence of many new hypotheses on the origins of phrase structure. This chapter briefly reviews this agenda and the specific principles and implementations put forth in Stowell and subsequent work.
Article outline
  • 1.Stowell (1981): Replacing rewrite rules
  • 2.The X′-scheme and rewrite rules in the 70’s
  • 3.Dispensing with phrase structure rules altogether: OPS and subsequent
    • 3.1The order of complements
    • 3.2The Case Resistance Principle
  • 4.Specifiers
  • 5.Lastly…
  • Notes
  • References
References (38)
References
Alexiadou, Artemis, Elena Anagnostopoulou and Florian Schäfer. 2015. External Arguments in Transitivity Alternations: A Layering Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Borer, Hagit. 1994. The projection of arguments. UMOP 17: Functional Projections. [URL]
. 2005. The Normal Course of Events. Structuring Sense II. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bresnan, Joan. 1972. Theory of Complementation in English Syntax. PhD dissertation, MIT.
. 1977. Variables in the Theory of Transformations. In Culicover, Wasow and Akmajian, (eds.) 157–196. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1994. Locative Inversion and the Architecture of Universal Grammar. Language 70: 72–131. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1970. Remarks on Nominalizations. In R. Jacobs and P. Rosenbaum (eds). Readings in English Transformational Grammar. Waltham, MA: Ginn: 184–221.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1977. On WH Movement. In Culicover, Wasow, and Akmajian, (eds). 71–132.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1980. On Binding, Linguistic Inquiry 11.1. 1–46.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1965. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coopmans, Peter. 1989. Where Stylistic and Syntactic Processes Meet: Locative Inversion in English. Language 65: 728–751. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culicover, Peter, Thomas Wasow, and Adrian Akmajian. 1977 (eds). Formal Syntax. Chicago: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dresher, B. Elan and Norbert Hornstein. 1979. Trace Theory and NP Movement Rules. Linguistic Inquiry Vol. 10.1: 65–82.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Emonds, Joseph. 1976. A Transformational Approach to English Syntax. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1978. The Verbal Complex V′-V in French. Linguistic Inquiry 9: 151–175.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Funakoshi, Kenshi. 2009. Theta Marking via Agree. English Linguistics 26.1 p. 1–32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoekstra, Teun and René Mulder. 1990. Unergatives as Copular Verbs: Locational and Existential Predication. The Linguistic Review 7: 1–79. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jackendoff, Ray. 1977a. X′ Syntax: A study of Phrase Structure. Linguistic Inquiry Monograph 2. Cambridge, MA: MIT PressGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1977b. Constraints on Phrase Structure Rules. In Culicover, Wasow and Akmajian (eds.). 249–83.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnson, Kyle. 1991. Object positions. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory Vol. 9, No. 4 (Nov., 1991), pp. 577–636. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kayne, Richard S.. 1983. Connectedness and Binary-branching. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kitagawa, Yoshihisa. 1986. Subjects in Japanese and English. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amhers.
Koopman, Hilda. 1984. The syntax of verbs: From verb movement rules in the Kru languages to universal grammar. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koster, Jan. 1978. Why Subject Sentences do not exist. In S. J. Keysern (ed.) Recent Transformational Studies in European Languages. Linguistic Inquiry Monograph 3, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lightfoot, David 1977. On traces and Conditions on Rules. in Culicover, Wasow and Akmajian, (eds.). 237–238.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Manzini, M. Rita. 1983. Restructuring and Reanalysis. PhD dissertation, MIT.
Polinsky, Maria and Preminger Omer 2019. The Agreement Theta generalization. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 4(1): 102. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pollock, Jean-Yves. 1989. Verb Movement, Universal Grammar, and the Structure of IP. Linguistic Inquiry, Vol. 20.3: 365–424.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sheehan, Michelle. 2012. A New Take on Partial Control: Defective Thematic Intervention. Cambridge Occasional Papers in Linguistics 6, 1–47. [URL]
Stowell, Tim. 1983. Subjects Across Categories. The Linguistic Review 2 (3), 285–313. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1981. Origins of Phrase Structure. PhD dissertation, MIT.
Travis, Lisa. 1984. Parameters and Effects on Word Order Variation. PhD dissertation, MIT.
Vergnaud, Jean-Roger. 1979. Letter to Noam Chomsky and Howard Lasnik.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, Edwin. 1975. Small Clauses in English. In J. Kimball (ed.) Syntax and Semantics Vol IV. New York: Academic Press. 249–273.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1980. Predication. Linguistic Inquiry 11.1 203–238.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1981. Argument Structure and Morphology. The Linguistic Review 1.1 81–114. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue