Government and binding theory

The Government and Binding Theory ( Government and Binding ) describes a version of Noam Chomsky's syntax model of generative grammar. Like all syntax models in the tradition of Chomsky is the Government and Binding theory a Konstituentengrammatik ( = phrase structure grammar) and therefore no dependency grammar. The term goes back to Chomsky published in 1981 Lectures on Government and Binding. It refers to the development of the theory in the 1980s.

It mainly with syntactic rules. In principle, there are three levels of the syntactic representation:

• The deep structure (D - structure of Deep Structure)
• The surface structure (S- structure of Surface Structure)
• The phonetic form ( PF) and logical form (LF)

D structure is a direct projection of information from the lexicon (in particular relates to, for example, the verb - argument structure), the S- structure is of the D structure derived intermediate level and the input for each of the phonetic form and the logical form. The logical form is a derived from the S- structure representation level at which, for example, quantifiers, Scopus is clearly shown. The three stages are related by a rule for a simple movement (move α ). To the lexicon of a specific language they are connected by the projection principle. There are certain rules and restrictions that are considered in appropriate areas within the theory.

Chomsky developed his theory further later and replaced it in the 1990s, partly through his Minimalist program that attempts to limit themselves to a minimum of types and rules.