Structural & grammatical relations

Dominance

when a node X is vertically connected to and above a node Y

Immediate dominance

When a node X immediately contains a node Y

Exhaustive dominance

When a node dominates all members of the set, and there is no terminal node that is dominated by the node that isn’t a member of the set

Constituents on a tree

the set of terminal nodes exhaustively dominated by a single node

Constituent of

when a node x dominates a node y

Precedence

When a node X appears to the left of Y in a tree

Sister precedence

When a node X appears to the left of a node Y in a tree and nodes X and Y are both immediately dominated by the same node Z

No crossing branches constraint

If a node X precedes node Y then X and all nodes it dominates must precede Y and all nodes it dominates

C-command

When every node dominating X also dominates Y but X does not dominate Y

Symmetric c-command

When X and Y c-command each other

Asymmetric c-command

when X c-commands Y but Y doesn’t c-command x

Subject

the NP/CP daughter of TP, c-commands VP

Direct object

NP/CP daughter of VP, may be preceded by an NP

Indirect object

the PP daughter of VP that is immediately preceded by an NP, or the NP daughter of VP immediately preceded by V

Object of preposition

The NP daughter of a PP

Oblique

any other NP/PP in a sentence that isn’t a subject or object