X-bar theoretic

adjective

Pertaining to the X-bar theory.

Meanings

adjectiveX-bar theoretic (not comparable)

alternative X-bar-theoretic · alternative X′ theoretic · alternative X′-theoretic

  1. not comparablePertaining to the X-bar theory.

    Generalized X-bar theoretic representations have enjoyed broad though not universal acceptance throughout the generative enterprise.

    2013, Marcel den Dikken, “Introduction”, in Marcel den Dikken, editor, The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 13
    2 more examples

    In the structures in (7) and (14), the nominalizers -er and -ee are X-bar theoretic heads and the verb-bases are their X-bar theoretic complements.

    1997, Paul Law, “On Some Syntactic Properties of Word-structure and Modular Grammars”, in Anna-Maria Di Sciullo, editor, Projections and Interface Conditions: Essays on Modularity, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 34

    Since I first entered into the field of theoretical syntax, I have been living my life with the textbook assumption that every exercise in this field is about drawing trees with labels and projection of the X-bar-theoretic sort.

    2014, Hiroki Narita, Endocentric Structuring of Projection-free Syntax, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, page xi

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

X-bar theoretic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/X-bar%20theoretic

MLA

“X-bar theoretic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/X-bar%20theoretic. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “X-bar theoretic,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/X-bar%20theoretic.

Source: X-bar theoretic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.