The current and widely used definition of c-command that Reinhart had developed was not new to syntax. Similar configurational notions had been circulating for more than a decade. In 1964, Klima defined a configurational relationship between nodes he labeled "in construction with". In addition, Langacker proposed a similar notion of "command" in 1969. Reinhart's definition has also shown close relations to Chomsky's 'superiority relation.'The 'superiority relation' denotes the superiority as asymmetrical where nodes A and B cannot be superior to each other. The difference between Reinhart's 'c-command' and Chomsky's 'superiority relation' is that sister nodes are permitted in the former whereas it is excluded in the latter. See Reinhart (1981:612).
