Chain Condition
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In genrative syntax, a chain condition is a wellformedness condition on chains, which states that every chain (a1,...,an) must contain exactly one Theta-marked position and exactly one Case-marked position.
Comments
In A-chains an is Case-marked and an is Theta-marked, while in A'-chains the lowest variable A'-bound by the operator is Case-marked, and may either be Theta-marked, or A-bind a Theta-marked position in the chain. This condition restates the case filter (or the visibility condition) and the Theta criterion in terms of chains.
Link
Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics
References
- Chomsky, Noam A. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht:Foris.
- Chomsky, Noam A. 1986. Knowledge of language: its nature, origin and use. Praeger, New York.
- Chomsky, Noam A. 1986b. Barriers. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
