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The name refers to two central subtheories of the theory: government, which is an abstract syntactic relation, and '''binding''', which deals with the referents of Pronouns , Anaphors , and R-expression s. GB was the first theory to be based on the Principles And Parameters model of language, which also underlies the later developments of the Minimalist Program.


BINDING

Binding can be defined as follows:

  • An element α binds an element β if and only if α C-command s β, and α and β are co-referent.


Consider the sentence "John saw his mother." which is diagrammed below using simple Phrase Structure Rules .

"John" c-commands "his" because the first non-trivial parent of "John", S, contains "his". "John" and "his" are also co-referent (they refer to the same person), therefore "John" binds "his".

On the other hand, in the sentence "A friend of John saw his mother", "John" does not c-command "his", so they have no binding relationship, regardless of whether they are co-referent (which they may be; the example is ambiguous).

The importance of binding is shown in the grammaticality of the following sentences:

    • Johni saw himi. (ungrammatical with co-reference)

    • John saw himself. (unambiguously co-referent)

    • Himself saw John. (ungrammatical)

    • Johni saw Johni. (ungrammatical, unless it refers to two distinct Johns)



Binding is used, along with particular binding principles, to explain the ungrammaticality of those statements. The applicable rules are called Binding Principle A, Binding Principle B, and Binding Principle C.

  • Principle A states that reflexives (and reciprocals, such as "each other") must always be bound in their domains. Since there is nothing to bind "himself" in sentence {Link without Title} , that principle is violated, and the sentence is ungrammatical.


  • Principle B states that a pronoun must never be bound within its domain. If, in sentence {Link without Title} , "John" and "him" are co-referent, then there is a binding relationship between them, violating the principle and resulting in ungrammaticality.


  • Principle C states that R-expressions must never be bound. R-expressions are referential expressions: non-pronoun, uniquely identifiable entities, such as "the dog", or proper names such as "John". In sentence {Link without Title} , the first instance of "John" binds the second, resulting in the ungrammaticality.


Note that Principles A and B refer to domains. It is difficult to define a domain in a way that explains all the data, though the definition may be related to movement islands and the Phase Impenetrability Constraint .


FURTHER READING

  • Liliane Haegeman (1994). ''Introduction to Government and Binding Theory'' (Second Edition). Blackwell.



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