Functional projection

STUB

In X-bar theory, a functional projection is the projection of a functional head, such as COMP (CP), INFL (IP), or Det (DP). The underlying assumption is that, like the lexical heads N, A, V and P, functional heads have a syntactic projection as dictated by X-bar theory.

Comment

A fundamental question is whether there is a limit to the number of functional categories. It seems reasonable to assume that their projection is in some sense parasitic on, or an extension of, a lexical projection.

Link

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

References

• Abney, S. 1987. The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect, Unpublished Diss MIT.
• Chomsky, N. 1986b. Barriers, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
• Ouhalla, J. 1990. Functional categories and parametric variation, diss. UCL.

Other languages

German funktionale Projektion