ABSTRACT
The Government-Binding theory is modular, composed of distinct subcomponents, each consisting of differentiated syntactic principles. The development of this theory, like that of other theories, has, in large part, consisted of the empirical and conceptual task of determining the class of differentiated principles and components and the nature of the differences among them. Over the course of the evolution of this theory, it has often been argued that what was thought to be a distinct subcomponent or principle is in fact not, but is reducible to other, independent principles of grammar. To take but one prime example of this (and there are many others) consider the existence of phrase structure rules. Until quite recently, it was assumed that natural language grammars contain a differentiated (distinct) phrase structure component, consisting of a set of such rules. However, it has been argued recently that phrase structure rules may well be eliminated by virtue of being reducible to independently motivated grammatical principles (see Chomsky (1981, sections 2.1 and 2.5; 1982), Stowell (1981)). Similar kinds of reduction have also been proposed with respect to the transformational component, now arguably reduced to the single rule Move-alpha as well as to other components of Universal Grammar.
