m-command
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In theoretical linguistics, m-command is a syntactic relation between two elements in a tree structure. It is a broader version of c-command. Aoun and Sportiche's (1983) definition of c-command in fact corresponds to what is now known as "m-command".
Chomsky (1986) established the standard definition of m-command. If X and Y are two nodes in a syntactic tree, X m-commands Y if and only if:
- X does not dominate Y,
- Y does not dominate X, and
- the maximal projection of X dominates Y.
The notion of maximal projection is adopted from X-bar theory.
The difference between c-command and m-command is that X m-commands everything that it c-commands, and in addition it m-commands the element in the specifier position of the phrase that it heads.
M-command is used in the formulation of the syntactic relation government.
[edit] References
- Aoun, Joseph; Dominique Sportiche (1983). "On the Formal Theory of Government". Linguistic Review 2: 211–236.
- Chomsky, Noam (1986). Barriers. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
