// n. 1. Traditionally, any instance of a dependency in which the mere presence of one element (the governor) imposes some requirement upon the form assumed by a second element which is grammatically linked with it (the governed category). For example, a verb or a preposition which requires an object NP standing in the dative case is said to govern its object, or to govern the dative case. Certain instances of what are traditionally regarded as agreement are strictly instances of government, such as the concord in gender between an adjective and the noun it modifies; see the remarks under agreement. 2. In GB, a particular structural relationship which may hold between two nodes in a tree, and which is regarded as being of central importance in that framework.
The precise definition of government has varied considerably over the years; a recent version (from Chomsky 1986) is the following: a node A governs a node B iff (a) A m-commands B; (b) no maximal projection intervenes between A and B; (c) A is a head. Government is essentially a special case of c-command (or, more recently, of m-command) in which certain additional requirements are met. It plays a crucial role in GB in the assignment of Case and in constraining the distribution of empty categories. The notion was introduced by Chomsky (1981) and significantly modified by Aoun and Sportiche (1982). See Haegeman (1991) for discussion, and see Barker and Pullum (1990) for an attempt at extracting the common core of the various definitions of government which have been offered; see also proper government. 3. See lexical government.
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/ n. 1. Traditionally, any instance of a 
