Equi NP deletion

Equi NP deletion is a transformation deleting one of two identical NPs.

Example

in deriving John wants to win the surface-structure (i)b is derived from deep-structure (i)a by deletion of the second occurrence of John.

(i) a  John wants [John to win]
    b  John wants [to win]
    c  John wants [ PRO to win ]

The two occurrences of John in the deep-structure (i)a account for the fact that the understood subject of to win is identical to the subject of wants. This analysis has been replaced by the analysis in (i)c with a PRO subject.

Link

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

References

• Chomsky, N. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding, Foris, Dordrecht.
• Ross, J.R. 1967. Constraints on variables in syntax, doctoral dissertation, MIT (published as 'Infinite syntax!' Ablex, Norwood (1986)).

Other languages

German EQUI-NP-deletion