X-bar theory is a component of linguistic theory which attempts to identify syntactic features common to all languages. It claims that among their phrasal categories, all languages share certain structural similarities, including one known as the "X-bar", which does not appear in traditional phrase structure rules. X-bar theory was first proposed by Chomsky (1970) and further developed by Jackendoff (1977).
The letter X is used to signify an arbi...
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X-bar theory is a component of linguistic theory which attempts to identify syntactic features common to all languages. It claims that among their phrasal categories, all languages share certain structural similarities, including one known as the "X-bar", which does not appear in traditional phrase structure rules. X-bar theory was first proposed by Chomsky (1970) and further developed by Jackendoff (1977).
The letter X is used to signify an arbitrary lexical category; when analyzing a specific utterance, specific categories are assigned. Thus, the X may become an N for noun, a V for verb, an A for adjective, or a P for preposition.
The term X-bar is derived from the notation representing this new structure. Certain structures are represented by X (an X with an overbar). Because this is difficult to typeset, this is often written as X′, using the prime symbol. In English, however, this is still read as "X bar". The notation XP stands for X Phrase, and is equivalent to X-bar-bar (X...
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