Contain

In generative syntax, contain is a Structural notion in the Minimalist Program. A contains B if some segment of A S-dominates B.

Example

In [_A1 B [_A2 C ]] , B is contained by A because it is S-dominated by A₁, A₁ is a segment of A (= {A₁, A₂}).

Link

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

Reference

• Chomsky, Noam A. 1993. A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory. MIT occasional papers in linguistics, 1-67.