Lexical and Configurational Structures

Abstract

Examined are properties of the level of configurational or constituent structure, & the level at which grammatical relations are represented, corresponding to configuration & lexical structures of government & binding theory & to c-structures & f-structures in lexical functional grammar. The autonomy of the two levels is noted, based on data from Malayalam, Eng, & other langs. Specific phenomena including reflexive binding, control, case assignment, & others are argued to belong to the lexical structure; pronominal non-coreference, wh-movement, & quantifier scope belong to configurational structure. Some resulting modifications in government & binding theory are proposed. B. Annesser Murray.