Chapter 3 - Basic Concepts of Syntactic Theoryto find the adjunct itself being made up of a compound, which has a very different
structure. Compare the following:
(43) a computer hard disk
b ballpoint pen
In both cases the last noun is the head, but the adjuncts are related in different ways. In
(43a), the adjective hard modifies the head to form a compound hard disk. We then
add the second adjunct which modifies this. Thus we have the structure:
(44) N
N N
computer A N
hard disk
In (43b) on the other hand, we have a compound made up of ball and point, with
the latter as the head. This compound is then used as an adjunct in the compound
ballpoint pen, giving the following structure:
(45) N
N N
N N pen
ball point
An interesting point to note is that the adjunct to a head is always a head itself,
which differs from the previous cases of adjunction we looked at above. Adjuncts
adjoined to X' or XP are always phrases. It has been suggested that this is due to a
restriction on adjunction such that only like elements can adjoin: heads to heads,
phrases to phrases. If this is true, then X' adjunction should not be possible as the
adjunct differs in its X-bar status to the X', being a phrase. We will not accept this
point of view however and assume that while only heads can adjoin to heads, phrases
can adjoin to any constituent larger than a head.
1.6 Summary
Before moving on to look at other aspects of syntactic processes, let us consolidate
what we have said in this section. X-bar theory is a theory of basic structure
comprising of just three rules. These rules are generally applicable to all structures and
substructures, no matter what their category: they are category neutral. The categorial
status of a specific structure depends on the lexical elements it contains, in particular
one word acts as the head of each phrase and this determines the category of the phrase
by projecting its own categorial properties, established in the lexicon, to the X' node
above it and ultimately to the XP.