Complex NP Constraint

A complex NP constraint is one of the conditions on transformations in early generative syntax.

• No element contained in an S dominated by an NP with a lexical head noun may be moved out of that NP by a transformation. (Ross 1967:70).

Example

This condition accounts for the ungrammaticality of the sentence:

* Who did you hear [_NP the rumor [_CP that Mary kissed t ]]

Comment

More recently, this class of facts have been analyzed as subjacency violations.

Link

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

Reference

Ross, J.R. 1967. Constraints on variables in syntax. Dissertation.