Chapter 4 Structural Relations

Chapter 4: Structural Relations Branches: lines of a tree Node: end of any branch Branching: a node with 2 or more branches below it Non-branching: node with a single branch below it Label: the name given to a node (Ex. NP) Root node: node with no line on top – usually the TP (the node that dominates everything but is dominate by nothing) Terminal nodes: any node with no branch underneath (the words) (a node that dominates nothing- not a mother) Non-terminal node: every node in between (include root node) (a node that dominates something-is a mother) Domination: Node A dominates node B if and only if A is higher up in the tree than B and if you can trace a line from A to B going only downwards Exhaustive domination: Node A exhaustively dominates a SET of terminal nodes provided that it dominates all the members of the set (so that there is no member of the set that is not dominated by A) and there is no terminal node dominated by A that is not a member of the set (READ PG 121-123 for clarification) Constituent: a set of terminal nodes exhaustively dominated by a particular node Constituent of: B is a constituent of A if and only if A dominates B Immediate constituent of: B is an immediate constituent of A if and only if A immediately dominates B Immediate domination: A dominates node B if there is only one branch between them (no intervening node) Sister precedence: node A sister-precedes node B if and only if both are immediately dominated by the same node, and A appears to the left of B Precedence: Node A precedes node B if neither A dominates B nor B dominates A AND A/node dominating A sister precedes (comes to left of) B/some node dominating B No crossing branches constraint: if one node X precedes another node Y, then X and all nodes dominated by X must precede Y and all nodes dominated by Y Immediate precedence: A immediately precedes B if there is no node that follows A but precedes B C-command: a node c-commands its sisters and all the daughters/granddaughters/etc of its sisters (node A c-commands node B if every node dominating A also dominates B, and neither A nor B dominates the other) Symmetric c-command: A symmetrically c-commands B if A c-commands B AND B commands A Asymmetric c-command: A asymmetrically c-commands B if A c-commands B but doesn’t c-command A Government: Node A governs node B if A c-commands B, and if there is no node G, such that G is ccommanded by A and G asymmetrically c-commands B Phrase government: if A is a phrase, then G must also be a phrase Head government: if A is a head (word), G must also be a head Subject: NP or CP daughter of TP Direct object: NP or CP daughter of a VP Object of preposition: NP daughter of PP Oblique: any NP/PP in the sentence that is not a subject, direct object of a preposition, DO or IO