This book explores the empirical and theoretical aspects of constituent structure in natural language syntax, critically examining the strengths and limitations of different approaches. It is an ideal introduction for graduate students and advanced undergraduates and a valuable reference for theoretical linguists of all persuasions.

Part 1: Preliminaries 1. Introduction 2. Constituent Structure 3. Basic Properties of Trees: Dominance and Precedence 4. Second Order Relations: C-command and Government Part 2: Phrase Structure Grammars and X-bar Theory 5. Capturing Constituent Structure: Phrase Structure Grammars 6. Extended Phrase Structure Grammars 7. X-bar Theory Part 3: Controversies 8. Towards Set-Theoretic Constituency Representations 9. Dependency and Constituency 10. Multidominated, Multidimensional, and Multiplanar Structures 11. Phrasal Categories and Cartography References Index

Andrew Carnie , University of Arizona