By the late-1980s, Government and Binding Theory the central aspect of generative grammar, threatened to become as large and as intricate as the language it described. To counter this, Noam Chomsky introduced a minimalist programme with the aim of making statements about language as simple and general as possible. One of the areas subjected to this minimalist scrutiny has been phrase structure, the fundamental basis of grammar. This text focuses on the most controversial area of phrase structure, the notion of a specifier a ...
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By the late-1980s, Government and Binding Theory the central aspect of generative grammar, threatened to become as large and as intricate as the language it described. To counter this, Noam Chomsky introduced a minimalist programme with the aim of making statements about language as simple and general as possible. One of the areas subjected to this minimalist scrutiny has been phrase structure, the fundamental basis of grammar. This text focuses on the most controversial area of phrase structure, the notion of a specifier a notion encompassing the traditional categories of subjects, possessors, determiners, auxiliaries, and adjuncts. It examines what place the notion has in the new theory and how the projection of specifiers is to be eliminated or extended. The contributors (prominent American, British, and European scholars) draw on empirical, theoretical research in cross-linguistic phenomena and first and second language acquisition.
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