To understand the properties of modern phrase structure grammars, it is useful to place their development in a wider formal and historical context. Phrase structure grammars and associated notions of phrase structure analysis have their proximate origins in models of Immediate Constituent (IC) analysis. Extended phrase structure models could exploit the descriptive value of feature information for describing local and nonlocal grammatical dependencies. Extended phrase structure models began to incorporate insights and perspectives from other monostratal approaches. In the subsequent development of phrase structure grammars, the interpretation of rules as partial descriptions of trees provided the model for a more comprehensive constraint-based or model-theoretic perspective. The models of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) develop a number of revisions in the context of a broad constraint-based conception of grammar. The current models of Sign-Based Construction Grammar (SBCG) integrate key empirical insights from the Berkeley Construction Grammar tradition.