Introduction

Abstract

Abstract Within an X' theory of phrase structure, each lexical category X (= noun, verb, adjective, preposition) is immediately dominated by a category X' that is, in turn, immediately dominated by a category X". We refer to X as the “head” of the “projections” X' and X". The X' projection of the head X consists of X and its complements. The X" projection, the “maximal projection” of X, consists of X' and the Specifier of X'. This schema thus defines the dominance relations of phrase structure representations. The order of constituents can be assumed to follow from properly formulated specifications of certain principles and parameters, including those governing Case assignment and theta assignment, and perhaps also from a principle that independently determines head-complement order.