Punjabi X-Bar Essay

This dissertation investigates the various aspects of Punjabi X-Bar structure, with the main focus on the syntax of the Punjabi verb phrase, especially with the aim to present a Minimalist analysis of the constructions projected by Punjabi verbs (i.e. copula, intransitive, transitive and compound verbs). Minimalist Program, pioneered by Chomsky in 1995, is the latest version of generative grammar tradition.

The concept of X-Bar was coined with the development of Phrase Structure Theory, which deals with the constituent structure of sentence. In the Western tradition, the concepts about constituent structure of clause can be divided into three stages, i.e. Traditional, Structuralist and Generative. Traditionally, constitutional structure of a clause has been initially analyzed as Subject + Predicate. In the Indian tradition, constitutional structure of a clause is analyzed as a network of Karka relations.

In Indian tradition, the scientific study of language, especially known as vyakaran, dates back to Pāṇini, the period assumed to be 5th century BCE. Even it is arguably assumed that the history of the linguistics begins with the Pāṇini’s description of the Sanskrit grammar titled Astādhyāyī. He gave around 4000 sutras, in order to describe the basic properties of Sanskrit language. These sutras cover almost

The main goal of the generative grammar is to build a grammar that generates all and only the well-formed or grammatically correct sentences of the language. One of the most significant concepts and beliefs is that the grammar should be precise and generative, which means the finite set of grammar rules generate infinite number of sentences of a language.The origin and various developments in generative grammar will be discussed in the next chapter in