Phrase Structure Grammars
- LAST REVIEWED: 19 July 2017
- LAST MODIFIED: 25 October 2017
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199772810-0190
- LAST REVIEWED: 19 July 2017
- LAST MODIFIED: 25 October 2017
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199772810-0190
Introduction
Phrase structure grammars model the internal structure of a sentence in terms of a hierarchically organized representation. The sentence Every boy has a bike, for instance, is taken to consist of a noun phrase (every boy) and a verb phrase (has a bike), where the former consists of a determiner (every) and a noun (boy), and the latter consists of a verb (has) and a noun phrase (a bike), which in turn consists of a determiner (a) and a noun (bike). The structure is made explicit by labeled bracketing, as in (S (NP (Det every) (N boy)) (VP (V has) (NP (Det a) (N bike)))). Phrase structure grammars were introduced by Noam Chomsky in the 1950s, building on the tradition of Immediate Constituent Analysis in post-Bloomfieldian structuralism. They played a key role in Transformational Grammar (TG) till the late 1960s, mainly as a descriptive device. The shift toward generalization led to a more abstract version, widely known as X-bar syntax, a staple ingredient of generative syntax throughout the 1970s and the 1980s. The introduction of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995, cited under Bare Phrase Structure and the Minimalist Program since 1995) in the 1990s led to further abstraction, involving, among others, the virtual elimination of phrase structure rules. In Non-Transformational Grammar, which has its origins in the 1970s, phrase structure grammar continues to thrive, especially in Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG) and Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). While phrase structure grammars are mainly used in syntax, they also play a role in other areas of linguistics: they provide a structural backbone for the compositional interpretation of sentences in Semantics and for identifying prosodic units in Phonology. Their role in morphology is a bone of contention: in Transformational Grammar, the smallest units of analysis are morphemes, so that PS grammars extend below the word level. Non-transformational frameworks, by contrast, adopt a lexicalist stance and treat words as the syntactic atoms, leaving the expression of sublexical regularities to other devices, such as lexical rules. The Formal Properties of phrase structure grammars have been studied extensively in mathematical linguistics. They play a key role in computational linguistics and Natural Language Processing. Their relevance for the investigation of human language processing is studied in Psycholinguistics.
General Overviews and Textbooks
Phrase structure grammars provide a formal notation for the analysis of the internal structure of sentences. Their origins and their role in linguistics are traced in Graffi 2001 and Matthews 1993. They currently play a key role both in transformational and non-transformational generative grammar. Textbooks usually introduce either the one or the other, but there are a few that cover both, such as Borsley 1999, Carnie 2011, and Müller 2016.
Borsley, Robert D. 1999. Syntactic theory: A unified approach. 2d ed. London: Routledge.
Introduces the central concepts of syntactic theory in a stepwise way, systematically comparing their treatment in the transformational government and binding (GB) framework and in generalized phrase structure grammar / head-driven phrase structure grammar (GPSG/HPSG). Contains exercises.
Carnie, Andrew. 2011. Modern syntax: A course book. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511780738E-mail Citation »
Aims to draw together the best ideas from minimalism, HPSG, and lexical-functional grammar (LFG). Contains exercises.
Graffi, Giorgio. 2001. 200 years of syntax: A critical survey. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: 10.1075/sihols.98E-mail Citation »
A broad historical survey, spanning both the 19th and the 20th centuries, up until and including the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995, cited under Bare Phrase Structure and the Minimalist Program since 1995). Immediate Constituent Analysis is introduced in the chapter on techniques of syntactic description.
Matthews, Peter. 1993. Grammatical theory in the United States: From Bloomfield to Chomsky. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511620560E-mail Citation »
A bird’s-eye view of the history of linguistics in North America, spanning the period from 1900 to 1990. Traces the development and continuity of three leading ideas: the autonomy of syntax (from meaning), the view of sentences as linear configurations of morphemes, and the view of grammar as a genetically inherited system of universal principles.
Müller, Stefan. 2016. Grammatical theory: From transformational grammar to constraint-based approaches. 2 vols. Berlin: Language Science.
DOI: 10.26530/OAPEN_611693E-mail Citation »
The first volume of this work has a chapter on phrase structure grammar, as well as chapters on transformational grammar, GPSG, LFG, categorial grammar, HPSG, construction grammar, dependency grammar, and tree-adjoining grammar. Special attention is paid to issues of implementation and to matters that relate to the description of German. Contains exercises.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Acceptability Judgments
- Acoustic Phoneitcs
- Acquisition, Second Language, and Bilingualism, Psycholin...
- Adpositions
- Affixation
- African Linguistics
- Afroasiatic Languages
- Agreement
- Algonquian Linguistics
- Altaic Languages
- Analogy in Language and Linguistics
- Anaphora
- Animal Communication
- Aphasia
- Applicatives
- Arawak Languages
- Argument Structure
- Artificial Languages
- Athabaskan Languages
- Australian Languages
- Austronesian Linguistics
- Auxiliaries
- Balkans, The Languages of the
- Berber Languages and Linguistics
- Bilingualism and Multilingualism
- Biology of Language
- Blocking
- Caddoan Languages
- Caucasian Languages
- Causatives
- Celtic Languages
- Celtic Mutations
- Chomsky, Noam
- Chumashan Languages
- Classifiers
- Clauses, Relative
- Clinical Linguistics
- Cognitive Linguistics
- Colonial Place Names
- Comparative Reconstruction in Linguistics
- Comparative-Historical Linguistics
- Complementation
- Complexity, Linguistic
- Compositionality
- Compounding
- Computational Linguistics
- Conditionals
- Conjunctions
- Connectionism
- Consonant Epenthesis
- Contrastive Analysis in Linguistics
- Conversation Analysis
- Conversation, Maxims of
- Conversational Implicature
- Cooperative Principle
- Coordination
- Copula
- Creoles
- Creoles, Grammatical Categories in
- Critical Periods
- Cross-Language Speech Perception and Production
- Definiteness
- Dene-Yeniseian
- Dependencies
- Dependencies, Long Distance
- Derivational Morphology
- Determiners
- Dialectology
- Dialogue
- Diglossia
- Disfluency
- Distinctive Features
- Dravidian Languages
- Ellipsis
- Endangered Languages
- English as a Lingua Franca
- English, Early Modern
- Ergativity
- Eskimo-Aleut
- Euphemisms and Dysphemisms
- Evidentials
- Exemplar-Based Models in Linguistics
- Existential
- Existential Wh-Constructions
- Experimental Linguistics
- Fieldwork
- Finite State Languages
- First Language Attrition
- Formulaic Language
- Francoprovençal
- French Grammars
- Frisian
- Gabelentz, Georg von der
- Gender
- Genealogical Classification
- Generative Syntax
- Genetics and Language
- Gestures
- Grammar, Categorial
- Grammar, Construction
- Grammar, Descriptive
- Grammar, Functional Discourse
- Grammars, Phrase Structure
- Grammaticalization
- Harris, Zellig
- Heritage Languages
- History of Linguistics
- History of the English Language
- Hmong-Mien Languages
- Hokan Languages
- Honorifics
- Humor in Language
- Hungarian Vowel Harmony
- Iconicity
- Ideophones
- Idiolect
- Idiom and Phraseology
- Imperatives
- Indefiniteness
- Indo-European Etymology
- Inflected Infinitives
- Information Structure
- Innateness
- Interface Between Phonology and Phonetics
- Interjections
- Intonation
- IPA
- Iroquoian Languages
- Islands
- Jakobson, Roman
- Japanese Word Accent
- Jones, Daniel
- Juncture and Boundary
- Kiowa-Tanoan Languages
- Kra-Dai Languages
- Labov, William
- Language Acquisition
- Language and Law
- Language Contact
- Language Documentation
- Language, Gender, and Sexuality
- Language Geography
- Language Ideologies and Language Attitudes
- Language in Autism Spectrum Disorders
- Language Revitalization
- Language Shift
- Language Standardization
- Languages of Africa
- Languages of the Americas, Indigenous
- Languages of the World
- Learnability
- Lexemes
- Lexical Access, Cognitive Mechanisms for
- Lexical Semantics
- Lexical-Functional Grammar
- Lexicography
- Linguistic Anthropology
- Linguistic Areas
- Linguistic Landscapes
- Linguistic Prescriptivism
- Linguistic Profiling and Language-Based Discrimination
- Linguistic Relativity
- Literature and Linguistics
- Loanwords
- Machine Translation
- Mande Languages
- Markedness
- Mass-Count Distinction
- Mathematical Linguistics
- Mayan Languages
- Mental Health Disorders, Language in
- Mesoamerican Languages
- Metaphor
- Metathesis
- Metonymy
- Minority Languages
- Mixed Languages
- Mixe-Zoquean Languages
- Modification
- Mon-Khmer Languages
- Morphological Change
- Morphology
- Morphology, Subtractive
- Movement
- Munda Languages
- Muskogean Languages
- Nasals and Nasalization
- Negation
- Niger-Congo Languages
- Non-Pama-Nyungan Languages
- Northeast Caucasian Languages
- Nostratic
- Number
- Numerals
- Oceanic Languages
- Papuan Languages
- Penutian Languages
- Philosophy of Language
- Phonetics
- Phonetics, Articulatory
- Phonological Research, Psycholinguistic Methodology in
- Phonology
- Phonology, Computational
- Phonology, Early Child
- Pidgins
- Polarity
- Politeness in Language
- Polysemy
- Pragmatics, Acquisition of
- Pragmatics, Computational
- Pragmatics, Experimental
- Prague Linguistic Circle, The
- Presupposition
- Pronouns
- Psycholinguistics
- Quechuan and Aymaran Languages
- Questions
- Reciprocals
- Reduplication
- Reflexives and Reflexivity
- Relevance Theory
- Salish Languages
- Saussure, Ferdinand de
- Semantic Change
- Semantic Maps
- Semantic Roles
- Sentence Processing in Monolingual and Bilingual Speakers
- Sign Language Linguistics
- Sociolinguistics
- Sociolinguistics, Variationist
- Sonority
- Sound Change
- South American Indian Languages
- Specific Language Impairment
- Speech Perception
- Speech Production
- Speech Synthesis
- Suppletion
- Switch-Reference
- Syllables
- Syncretism
- Synonymy
- Syntactic Change
- Syntactic Knowledge, Children’s Acquisition of
- Tense, Aspect, and Mood
- Tone
- Tone Sandhi
- Topic
- Transcription
- Transitivity and Voice
- Translation
- Trubetzkoy, Nikolai
- Tucanoan Languages
- Tupian Languages
- Typology
- Usage-Based Linguistics
- Uto-Aztecan Languages
- Valency Theory
- Verbs, Serial
- Visual Word Recognition
- Voice and Voice Quality
- Vowel Harmony
- Whitney, William Dwight
- Word Classes
- Word Formation in Japanese
- Word Stress
- Writing Systems
- Yiddish
- Zapotecan Languages