The features which play a role in word syntax (i.e., form part of W-syntactic categories) can be assigned to two classes: (i) the "syntactic category features" [±Noun], [±Verb], etc., which represent the distinctions among Noun, Verb, Adjective, Preposition, Adverb, etc. (cf. Chomsky [Chomsky, Noam, 1970, “Remarks on Nominalization”, in Jacobs, R. A. and Rosenbaum, P. S., eds., “Readings in English Transformational Grammar”, Ginn, Massachusetts], Jackendoff Jackendoff, R., 1977, “X’ Syntax: A Study of Phrase Structure”, Linguistic Inquiry, Monograph 2, MIT Press, Cambridge]), and (ii) all of the others, which will be termed "diacritic features". The diacritic features include those relevant to the particulars of inflectional and derivational morphology.
- Selkirk (2004), Pag. 279