Government and binding is a theory of syntax in the tradition of transformational grammar developed by Noam Chomsky (1981, 1982, 1986). This theory is a radical revision of his earlier (1957, 1965) theories and was later revised in A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory (1993) and several subsequent papers, the latest being Derivation by Phase (2001). Although there is a large literature on government and binding theory which is not written by Chomsky, Chomsky's papers have been instrumental in setting the research agenda.

The name refers to two central subtheories of the theory: government, which is an abstract syntactic relation, and binding, which deals with the referents of pronouns, anaphores, and R-expression . GB was the first theory to be based on the principles and parameters model of language, which also underlies the later developments of the Minimalist Program.

Binding

The definition of binding has changed little from its initial conception; the final version is as follows:

• An element A binds an element B if and only if A c-commands B, and A and B are co-referent.

Consider the sentence "John saw his mother." which is diagrammed below using simple phrase structure rules.

   S
--------
NP    VP
|     -------
N     V    NP
|     |    ------
John  saw  ADJ  N
           |    |
           his  mother

"John" c-commands "his" because the first non-trivial parent of "John", S, contains "his". "John" and "his" are also co-referent (they refer to the same person), therefore "John" binds "his".

On the other hand, in the sentence "A friend of John saw his mother", "John" does not c-command "his", so they have no binding relationship, regardless of whether they are co-referent (which they may be; the example is ambiguous).

The importance of binding is shown in the grammaticality of the following sentences:

• John saw him. (ungrammatical with co-reference)
• John saw himself. (unambiguously co-referent)
• Himself saw John. (ungrammatical)
• John saw John. (ungrammatical, unless it refers to two distinct Johns)

Binding is used, along with particular binding principles, to explain the ungrammaticality of those statements. The applicable rules are called Binding Principle A, Binding Principle B, and Binding Principle C. BPA states that a pronoun must never be bound within its domain. If, in the first statement, "John" and "him" are co-referent, then there is a binding relationship between them, violating the principle and resulting in ungrammaticality. BPB states that reflexives (and reciprocals, such as "each other") must always be bound in their domains. Since there is nothing to bind "himself" in the third sentence, that principle is violated. Principle C states that R-expressions (proper names, for the most part) must never be bound; in the fourth sentence, the first instance of "John" binds the second, resulting in the ungrammaticality.

Note that Principles A and B refer to domains. It is difficult to define a domain in a way that explains all the data, though the definition may be related to movement islands and the Phase Impenetrability Constraint.

Further reading

• Noam Chomsky, "Lectures on Government and Binding", 7th Ed. 1993. Mouton de Gruyter. (First published 1981 by Foris Publications Holland).
• Liliane Haegeman , "Introduction to Government and Binding", 2nd Ed. 1994 Blackwell.

External links

• A step-by-step introduction to the Government and Binding theory of syntax
• Introduction to GB