lower category

A term used in GENERATIVE GRAMMAR to refer to a CATEGORY which has already been used in a TREE-diagram representation. The category that has been introduced later will appear to be lower down the tree than the earlier (HIGHER) category. Lower, or EMBEDDED, sentences (CLAUSES, VERB PHRASES, NOUN phrases, etc.) can be illustrated by the car which I left in the street has been stolen. It has occasionally been suggested that there are no lowering TRANSFORMATIONS, but lowering operations were assumed in later GOVERNMENT-BINDING THEORY.