Fázisszerkezet

Fázisszerkezet, or phase structure, is a concept in generative grammar, particularly within the framework of Chomsky's Minimalist Program. It refers to the hierarchical organization of syntactic structures where certain nodes (phases) act as boundaries that influence the movement and interpretation of elements within a sentence. A phase is typically identified by a maximal projection (e.g., a clause or a phrase) that contains a lexical head and is headed by a functional category (like Tense or C). The phase structure determines how information is packaged and how syntactic operations (such as wh-movement or quantifier raising) are constrained. For example, in English, the main clause is often a phase, and elements like wh-words may move out of a lower phase but not across phase boundaries. This structure helps explain syntactic constraints and the flow of information in natural language, providing a theoretical basis for analyzing complex sentences and their grammatical properties.