ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers an account of phrase structure in Japanese and English. It proposes that the subject of a sentence in Japanese is normally base-generated under the sentence node headed by a “complex” predicate consisting of a verb and a tense affix, but ends up being located within the projection of the verb due to the raising of the tense affix at LF. The application of Move-alpha and the resulting representations are constrained by a limited number of universal principles which include: the X-Bar principles, the Theta Criterion, the Projection Principle, the Case Filter, the Empty Category Principles, the principles of Binding Theory and the Subjacency Condition. As its name suggests, the Government and Binding Theory has always placed the notion “government” at the center of its description and explanation of various grammatical phenomena.
