Reduction
In 1981, Tim Stowell tried to derive X-bar theory from more general principles in his MIT thesis Origins of phrase structure, a pathbreaking but ultimately unsuccessful effort according to Andras Kornai and Geoffrey Pullum. In the mid 1990s, there were two major attempts to deduce versions of X-bar theory from independent principles. Richard Kayne's theory of Antisymmetry derived X-bar theory from the assumption that there was a tight relation between structure and linear order. Noam Chomsky's paper Bare Phrase Structure attempted to eliminate labelling (i.e. bar-levels) from syntax and deduce their effects from other principles of the grammar.
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