Chapter 3 - Basic Concepts of Syntactic TheoryThe verbs ask and wonder both have questions as their complements, but only with
ask can this question be expressed by a DP like the time. Thus there are extra
restrictions imposed on complements which go beyond the requirement that they be
compatible with the -role that is assigned to them. In short, specifiers are more
generally restricted than complements as they tend to be a uniform category for
different heads and merely have to be compatible with the meaning of the head.
1.5 Adjuncts
It is now time to turn to the third rule in (1), which we repeat here:
(30) Xn Æ Xn, Y/YP
This is different from the previous two rules in a number of ways. First, the previous
rules specified the possible constituents of the various specific projections of the head:
complements are immediate constituents of X' and specifiers are immediate
constituents of XP. The adjunction rule in (30) is more general as it states the possible
constituents of an Xn, that is, an X with any number of bars. In other words, Xn stands
for XP (=X''), X' or X (=X^0 ). The adjunct itself is defined either as a word (Y) or as a
phrase (YP) and we will see that which of these is relevant depends on the status of Xn:
if Xn is a word, then the adjunct is a word, if not then the adjunct is a phrase.
Note that the two elements on the right of the rewrite arrow are separated by a
comma. This is missing from the complement and specifier rule. The significance of
the comma is to indicate that the order between the adjunct and the Xn is not
determined by the rule. We have seen that in English the complement follows the head
and the specifier precedes it. Adjuncts, on the other hand, it will be seen, may precede
or follow the head depending on other conditions, which we will detail when looking
at specific instances of adjunction.
The final thing to note is that the adjunction rule is recursive: the same symbol
appears on the left and the right of the rewrite arrow. Thus the rule tells us that an
element of type Xn can be made up of two elements, one of which is an adjunct and the
other is another Xn. Of course, this Xn may also contain another Xn, and so on
indefinitely. In this way, any number of adjuncts may be added to a structure.
1.5.1 Adjunction to X-bar
Let us take an example to demonstrate how this might work. We know that an
adjectival phrase can be used to modify a noun, as in:
(31) a smart student
b vicious dog
c serious mistake
It is clear that the noun is the head of this construction as it can act as the complement
of a determiner and determiners take nominal complements, not adjectival ones:
(32) a the [NP serious error]
b the [NP error]
c *the [AP serious]
The bracketed elements in (32a) and (b) have the same distribution and hence we can
conclude they have the same categorial status. As this phrase in (32b) contains only a