Syntax II: Argument Structure We shall introduce a general schema for phrase structure, called X- bar syntax. In X-har syntax, every word projects a phrase consisting of up to two arguments, and any number of adjuncts. Lexical Categories ‘There are several tens of thousands of categories in a language, maybe even mil- tions. Thus the number of rules that we have to write is far too large to be written ‘one by one. Thus, while in phonology the desire for general rules could still be thought of as not so urgent, here it becomes absolutely central, We shall put to use ‘our notation of attribute value structures (AVSs). We start off with a few general purpose rules and then refine them as we go along. First, words fall into roughly two handful of so-called lexical or major eat- egories. The ones we shall be using are: noun (N), verb (V), adjective (A), adverb (Adv), preposition (P), complementizer (C), determiner (D), and tense (1). Not all classes have single words in them, but most of them do: N car,house, storm, insight Y — runeat,hasten, craw] A greedy, raw, shiny. cheerful (153) Adv. very, steadily, allegedly, down Pin, for, about, below C that, which, because, while D a.the,this, those (Our first attribute is car, and it has the values just displayed (so far, they are N, V, A. Ady, B.C D.T). Subject and Object ‘The next distinction we want to make is that between a word and a phrase. We hhave made that distinction earlier, when we called certain words determiners and certain constituents DPs (= determiner phrases). ‘The distinction is intimately