Editing Government and binding theory (section)

==Government==
The main application of the ''[[government (linguistics)|government]]'' relation concerns the assignment of [[Grammatical case|case]]. Government is defined as follows:

A '''governs''' B if and only if
* A is a '''governor''' and
* A '''[[m-command]]s''' B and
* no '''barrier''' intervenes between A and B.

'''Governors''' are heads of the [[lexical category|lexical categories]] (V, N, A, P) and [[tensed I]] (T). A [[m-command]]s B if A does not [[dominance (linguistics)|dominate]] B and B does not dominate A and the first '''maximal projection''' of A dominates B, where the maximal projection of a head X is XP. This means that for example in a structure like the following, A [[m-command]]s B, but B does not [[m-command]] A:

[[Image:ApBp.png]]

In addition, '''barrier''' is defined as follows:<ref>see "Minimality" in Haegeman 1994:163f.</ref> A barrier is any node Z such that
* Z is a potential governor for B and
* Z [[c-command]]s 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:

[[Image:HeSmashedTheVase1.png]]

Another important application of the government relation constrains the occurrence and identity of [[Trace (linguistics)|traces]] as the [[Empty category principle|Empty Category Principle]] requires them to be properly governed.