X-BARS IN ACROSS THE GULF

Abstract

With the assumption that there are structural ambiguities in Dul Johnson's novel 'Across the Gulf', this paper set out to find and disambiguate any sentence that conveys multiple meanings due to its structure. Sixteen questionnaires carrying five different sentences each were administered to a cross section of Bingham university students. Having numbered the questionnaires, odd numbers were narrowly selected for data presentation and analysis. it was discovered that there was no structural ambiguity. Also, the fact that all the sentences had multiple (though mostly wrong) lays credence to the claim that all locutionary acts are subject to illocutionary indeterminacy. The selected sentences were presented in tree diagrams, using Kornai and Pullum's version of X-bar theory. X-bar is a descriptive theory of syntax invented by Chomsky in 1970. Some of its claims were reconstructed by Andras Kornai and Geoffry Pullum in 1997.