neither a full phrase nor a word. Evidence for this is found in the following phrase: the sultan of Brunei. Firstly, we can prove that this phrase is a constituent by performing the following tests: 1) coordination – the sultan of Brunei and ruler of the empire. 2) Substituting the proform one – This sultan of Brunei is more handsome than the last one. Both of these tests prove that the constituent is sultan of Brunei and that it is smaller than a full phrase because in coordination and in substituting the proform one, the Determiner ‘the’ is not included. In other words, it is not correct to substitute the proform one and have, *This sultan of Brunei is more handsome than the last this sultan of Brunei. (Class notes) Thus we see the need for an intermediate category. The best way of representing this category is by using bar notation, i.e. N, N’, and N’’. “The reason for this is that it captures the commonality in the categorial status by the use of the same category symbol and captures the difference in complexity between categories by the number of bars that accompany the symbol.” (Class notes) This is an example of how X-bar theory of grammar is able to capture descriptive adequacy more sufficiently than a two-category level PSG.Another advantage of X-bar theory is that it enables us to capture formally a distinction between complements and adjuncts. (Class notes) This is advantageous because it can account for certain ambiguities. For example, in PSG there is no satisfactory way of capturing the ambiguity in the following: A teacher of high moral principles. X-bar syntax enables us to capture the ambiguity very clearly in the following way:Ateacherof high moral principlesvs.A teacherof high moral principlesIn the first tree structure, the meaning of the sentence is the teacher has teaches high moral principles. In the second one, the teacher is a person who has high moral pri...
