diff --git a/phrase-extract/tables-core.cpp b/phrase-extract/tables-core.cpp
index 9aa7aa787..4dd8e704a 100644
--- a/phrase-extract/tables-core.cpp
+++ b/phrase-extract/tables-core.cpp
@@ -11,11 +11,6 @@ using namespace std;
 namespace MosesTraining
 {
 
-bool isNonTerminal( const WORD &symbol )
-{
-  return symbol.substr(0, 1) == "[" && symbol.substr(symbol.size()-1, 1) == "]";
-}
-
 WORD_ID Vocabulary::storeIfNew( const WORD& word )
 {
   map<WORD, WORD_ID>::iterator i = lookup.find( word );