Book contents
- Continuing Syntax
- Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics
- Continuing Syntax
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Part I Configuration and Hierarchy
- 1 Goals and Basic Assumptions
- 2 Hierarchy I: Phrase Structure and Grammatical Functions
- 3 Hierarchy II: C-Command, Head-Movement and Locality
- 4 Hierarchy and Categories I: Refining the Structure of the Clause and the VP
- 5 Hierarchy and Categories II: The Structure of Nominals
- 6 Case and the Nature of Infinitives
- 7 Features, Case and Agreement
- 8 Hierarchy and Linear Order
- 9 The Origins of Hierarchy: Bare Phrase Structure
- Part II Locality
- Glossary
- Book part
- Index
- References
2 - Hierarchy I: Phrase Structure and Grammatical Functions
from Part I - Configuration and Hierarchy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 October 2025
Book contents
- Continuing Syntax
- Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics
- Continuing Syntax
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Part I Configuration and Hierarchy
- 1 Goals and Basic Assumptions
- 2 Hierarchy I: Phrase Structure and Grammatical Functions
- 3 Hierarchy II: C-Command, Head-Movement and Locality
- 4 Hierarchy and Categories I: Refining the Structure of the Clause and the VP
- 5 Hierarchy and Categories II: The Structure of Nominals
- 6 Case and the Nature of Infinitives
- 7 Features, Case and Agreement
- 8 Hierarchy and Linear Order
- 9 The Origins of Hierarchy: Bare Phrase Structure
- Part II Locality
- Glossary
- Book part
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter looks at the syntactic, i.e. phrase-structural, definitions of grammatical functions put forward in Chomsky (1965), which we restate using X-bar theory. We then submit these definitions to the ‘relational-grammar critique’, to adopt a term coined by Baker (2001), which suggests not just that Chomsky’s definitions are incorrect, but that something closer to the traditional idea that grammatical functions are primitives of syntactic theory is the right approach. One aspect of this critique is that constituency tests do not give clear results in many languages (English being something of an exception). Instead, we propose that asymmetries in c-command relations can provide us with a more reliable and general guide to constituency, and hence phrase-structural relations. This allows us to maintain a configurational definition of grammatical relations. In the final section of this chapter, we look at a construction which appears to centrally involve grammatical functions: the passive. We will see how the passive can be elegantly and usefully defined in purely phrase-structural terms. The conclusion is that grammatical relations can be reduced to phrase-structural relations, and as such are not primitive elements of syntactic theory. This is an important step in establishing the primacy of configurational, hierarchical, phrase-structural relations.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Continuing SyntaxHierarchy and Locality, pp. 29 - 54Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Primary Sources
Baker, M. 2001. Phrase structure as a representation of grammatical relations. In Davies, William D. & Dubinsky, Stanley (eds.), Objects and Other Subjects: Grammatical functions, functional categories and configurationality. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 21–52.Google Scholar
McCloskey, J. 1997. Subjecthood and Subject Positions. In Haegeman, Liliane (ed.), Elements of Grammar. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 197–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Secondary Sources
Carnie, A. 2013. Syntax: A generative introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, Chapters 4, 5, 17.Google Scholar
Roberts, I. 2023. Beginning Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Chapter 6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perlmutter, D. 1977. Impersonal passives and the unaccusative hypothesis. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 4: 157–89.Google Scholar
Perlmutter, D. & Postal, P.. 1983a. Some proposed laws of basic clause structure. In Perlmutter, D. (ed.), Studies in Relational Grammar 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 81–128.Google Scholar
Perlmutter, D. & Postal, P.. 1983b. Towards a universal characterisation of passivisation. In Perlmutter, D. (ed.), Studies in Relational Grammar 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 3–29.Google Scholar
Akkuş, F., Legate, J., Ringe, D. & Šereikaitė, M.. 2020. On passives. Language 96: 771–818.Google Scholar
Baker, M., Johnson, K. & Roberts, I.. 1989. Passive arguments raised. Linguistic Inquiry 20: 219–51.Google Scholar
Bruening, B. 2013. By phrases in passives and nominals. Syntax 16:1–41.10.1111/j.1467-9612.2012.00171.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, C. 2005. A smuggling approach to the passive in English. Syntax 8: 81–120.10.1111/j.1467-9612.2005.00076.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, C. 2024. Principles of argument structure: a Merge-based approach. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/15436.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kallulli, D. 2007. Rethinking the passive/anticausative distinction. Linguistic Inquiry 38 (4): 770–80.Google Scholar
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