ABSTRACT

An abbreviation for ‘constituent command’. C-command is one of the most important universal structure-related terms in generative grammar ( transformational grammar) along with domination and maximal projection. A constituent X ccommands Y (a constituent which is different from X) if and only if the first branching node dominating X also dominates Y and when neither X nor Y dominates the other. In the prepositional phrase (PP) in the book (=[prep+NP]pp). the preposition in ccommands the following noun phrase the book; the c-commands book, but not in. Ccommand plays a central role in the various modules of the theory and thus defines binding, government, and the scope of quantifiers.