c-command meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

c-command

noun

Etymology A shortened form of "constituent command." The term may also have been chosen so as to eliminate confusion in speech with the similar notion kommand.

Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences, Syntax The relationship between a node in a parse tree and its sibling nodes (usually meaning the children of the first branching node that dominates the node) and all the sibling nodes' children.

Given the key assumption of Trace Theory that a moved constituent leaves behind a coindexed trace, we might formulate the relevant principle that transformations cannot downgrade constituents in terms of an equivalent condition that a moved constituent cannot occupy a lower position than any of its traces. This principle might be stated more formally as in (85) below (85) C-COMMAND CONDITION (85) A moved constituent must c-command ( = constituent-command) (85) each of its traces at S-structure (X c-commands Y just in case the (85) first branching node dominating X dominates Y, and neither X (85) nor Y dominates the other)1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 10, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 564:

c-command

verb

Etymology A shortened form of "constituent command." The term may also have been chosen so as to eliminate confusion in speech with the similar notion kommand.

Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences, Syntax To dominate in a c-command relationship.

Related terms: m-command, kommand