The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect - Vinartus

46 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEConsider the noun phrases of (50).(50) a. [ picture of himself]b. The city's [ destruction t ]c. His [ picture of himself]d. Its [ destruction t ]e. *Himself's [ picture of himself]f. *Himself's [ destruction t]If we assume the \maximal category" denition of c-command, and assumethat is not maximal, the subject and object positions mutuallyc-command. So we would expect that (a), John's picture of himself, wouldviolate Condition C of the binding theory, as the r-expression John is c-commanded and bound by himself. Similarly, his picture of himself shouldviolate Condition B, and (e) and (f) should arguably be good, with eachanaphor binding the other. For this reason, Chomsky 1986a adopts twocommand relations: c-command, with the \branching node" denition, andm-command, with the \maximal category" denition. We can avoid thisduplication of relations by supposing, as in the DP-analysis, that is infact maximal. Then a noun's complement would fail to m-command itssubject, as desired.It is conceptually disagreeable to have one general notion of command|m-command|and another special notion of command for binding theory,solely to be able to account for binding in the noun phrase. But mattersare in fact worse than this. Consider again these adjunct control examplesfrom section 1:(51) a. John criticized Bill j after his j talkJohn's criticism of Bill j after his j talkb. *John criticized Bill j after PRO j talking*John's criticism of Bill j after PRO j talkingWe can account for this paradigm if we assume that the after adjunct isattached high enough that the coindexed elements, Bill and his, orBill andPRO, do not c-command each other. This does not prevent the pronounfrom taking Bill as antecedent, but it does block control of PRO by Bill(51b). Control of PRO is possible only when the antecedent c-commandsPRO.Under the standard analysis, this entails that c-command, not m-command,is the requisite notion of command, inasmuch aswe can attach the afteradjunct no higher than daughter of NP, inwhich case the only node interveningbetween Bill and PRO is N-bar.