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Question Formation In Mernyang
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Lamidi (2000:105) says that the head is the keyword
in a phrase and the word can be pre or post modified. In essence, the
head of a phrase is very important in x-bar theory and the head of the
phrase to the right or left of the hand is known as head parameter.
That is, head first.
X XO Complement
XI
XO Comp
Or head last
XI Complement X
XI
Comp XO
To
accommodate specifiers, it requires second level of structure putting
the levels of specifier and complements together, the order of the head
and specifier could be set separately from the order of the head and
complement. Thus
XII spec x
XI XO comp
Spec XI
Xo Comp
All
we have been discussing on X-bar (phrase structure) are lexical
phrases and the type of head in lexical phrases is related to word
classes. Lexical phrases invariably have heads that are lexical
categories linked to lexical entries.
Another type of phrase is the
functional phrase. Functional phrases are the phrase that are built
around functional heads – Functional phrases are the phrases that are
built around functional heads. Functional phrases invariably have heads
that are linked to functional elements. The functional phrases include
inflection phrases (IP).
Cook (1996: 150) says that, inflection
phrases are built around functional heads which may contain lexical
materials such as morphological endings but are not required to contain
lexical materials such as morphological endings but are not required to
contain lexical materials. The top levels of the sentence have been
unified with the rest of X-bar theory. The maximal level of a
sentence is called inflection phrase (IP) in x-bar theory. IP consists
of specifier and II, II in turn consists of I and a complement thus:
IP spec II
I I comp
IP
Spec II
I Comp
Other functional phrases includes complementizer phrase (CP)
CP spec CI
CI C IP
CP
Spec CI
C IP
Determinant phrase (DP)
DP spec D
DI D NP
DP
Spec DI
D NP
1.6.4 Theta (θ) Theory
Kirsten
(1991:493) states that θ theory deals with the functional relationship
between a predicate and its arguments: a predicate is said to assign
theta-role to each of its arguments. It is concerned with the
assignment of what Chomsky calls. ‘Thematic roles’ such as agent,
patient (or theme) beneficiary etc. It is assumed that theta-roles are
assigned to the complements of lexical items as a lexical property. The
NP complements (direct object) is assigned to the role of patient, the
PP complement is assigned the role of locative while the subject NP or
the sentence is assigned the agent role.
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