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.