Re: X-Bar Theory

Robert "Neo" Hill sikyal:

> Totally lost me there. What would be really helpful is maybe give me an
> example of how you map out the syntax of your languages? The BNF is just much
> to hard for me to grasp practically (i dont want to have to whip out the
> stack of syntax to write a small sentance) and X-Bar is totally out there. I
> am sorry if some of my questions are redundant and annoying :-/
It seems to me that this is the wrong way to design a language. I have
never once thought about X-Bar syntax while making a language--that's
something you'd use to analyze the language afterwards. Plus, X-Bar may or
may not be a really viable syntactic theory anyway, so designing your
language around the theory may be dating it or distorting it weirdly.


Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/

"If you look at a thing nine hundred and ninety-nine times, you are
perfectly safe; if you look at it the thousandth time, you are in
frightful danger of seeing it for the first time."
--G.K. Chesterton

Reply