The main application of the government relation concerns the assignment of case. Government is defined as follows:
A governs B if and only if
- A is a governor and
- A m-commands B and
- no barrier intervenes between A and B.
Governors are heads of the lexical categories (V, N, A, P) and tensed I (T). A m-commands B if A does not dominate B and B does not dominate A and the first maximal projection of A dominates B. The maximal projection of a head X is XP. This means that for example in a structure like the following, A m-commands B, but B does not m-command A:
In addition, barrier is defined as follows: A barrier is any node Z such that
- Z is a potential governor for B and
- Z c-commands B and
- Z does not c-command A
The government relation makes case assignment unambiguous. The tree diagram below illustrates how DPs are governed and assigned case by their governing heads:
Another important application of the government relation constrains the occurrence and identity of traces as the Empty Category Principle requires them to be properly governed.
Read more about this topic: Government And Binding Theory
Famous quotes containing the word government:
“Nations do not think, they only feel. They get their feelings at second hand through their temperaments, not their brains. A nation can be brought—by force of circumstances, not argument—to reconcile itself to any kind of government or religion that can be devised; in time it will fit itself to the required conditions; later it will prefer them and will fiercely fight for them.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“I’d wish the government took honest people into consideration, it shows enough consideration for scoundrels.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“What happens in a strike happens not to one person alone.... It is a crisis with meaning and potency for all and prophetic of a future. The elements in crisis are the same, there is a fermentation that is identical. The elements are these: a body of men, women and children, hungry; an organization of feudal employers out to break the back of unionization; and the government Labor Board sent to “negotiate” between this hunger and this greed.”
—Meridel Le Sueur (b. 1900)