diff --git a/libwccl/ops/equals.h b/libwccl/ops/equals.h
index 74311bb739803cb2acd1f8c53a942015bec2432c..7864afd24661f01a2c3c847aa8963d797976e22d 100644
--- a/libwccl/ops/equals.h
+++ b/libwccl/ops/equals.h
@@ -112,60 +112,6 @@ protected:
 	}
 };
 
-/**
- * Predicate that checks for equality of PositionRefs, given sentence context
- */
-template <>
-class Equals<PositionRef> : public Predicate {
-public:
-	typedef boost::shared_ptr<Function<PositionRef> > ArgFunctionPtr;
-
-	Equals(const ArgFunctionPtr& arg1_expr, const ArgFunctionPtr& arg2_expr)
-		: arg1_expr_(arg1_expr), arg2_expr_(arg2_expr)
-	{
-		BOOST_ASSERT(arg1_expr_);
-		BOOST_ASSERT(arg2_expr_);
-	}
-
-	virtual std::string to_string(const Corpus2::Tagset& tagset) const {
-		return BinaryFunctionFormatter::to_string(tagset, *this, *arg1_expr_, *arg2_expr_);
-	}
-
-	virtual std::string to_raw_string() const {
-		return BinaryFunctionFormatter::to_raw_string(*this, *arg1_expr_, *arg2_expr_);
-	}
-
-	virtual const std::string raw_operator_name() const {
-		return "equals";
-	}
-
-protected:
-	const ArgFunctionPtr arg1_expr_;
-	const ArgFunctionPtr arg2_expr_;
-
-	typedef FunctionBase::BaseRetValPtr BaseRetValPtr;
-
-	/**
-	 * Take values of arguments from expressions and return True if they are equal,
-	 * False otherwise.
-	 */
-	virtual BaseRetValPtr apply_internal(const SentenceContext& context) const {
-		boost::shared_ptr<PositionRef> arg1 = this->arg1_expr_->apply(context);
-		boost::shared_ptr<PositionRef> arg2 = this->arg2_expr_->apply(context);
-		if(arg1->equals(*arg2)) {
-			return Predicate::True->apply(context);
-		} else {
-			//in the given context both position refs can still point nowhere
-			//even if they have different underlying value
-			int abs_pos1 = context.get_abs_position(*arg1);
-			int abs_pos2 = context.get_abs_position(*arg2);
-			if(!context.is_inside(abs_pos1) && !context.is_inside(abs_pos2)) {
-				return Predicate::True->apply(context);
-			}
-		}
-		return Predicate::False->apply(context);
-	}
-};
 } /* end ns Wccl */
 
 #endif // LIBWCCL_OPS_EQUALS_H
diff --git a/libwccl/values/positionref.cpp b/libwccl/values/positionref.cpp
index 5b790885ed3e8215d0cbbc366dc3c79830059a9c..f0c24c01fcd899a56211e82bc6fed88db9d8c36c 100644
--- a/libwccl/values/positionref.cpp
+++ b/libwccl/values/positionref.cpp
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 
 namespace Wccl {
 
-const char* PositionRef::type_name = "PositionRef";
 
 std::string PositionRef::to_raw_string() const
 {
diff --git a/libwccl/values/positionref.h b/libwccl/values/positionref.h
index 4b0ffb6518ca1b6e4b4873035c53a51684db1954..d710278ff4245f68ab8555eaa57e73eb9ba74644 100644
--- a/libwccl/values/positionref.h
+++ b/libwccl/values/positionref.h
@@ -6,10 +6,9 @@
 
 namespace Wccl {
 
-class PositionRef : public Value
+class PositionRef
 {
 public:
-	WCCL_VALUE_PREAMBLE
 
 	explicit PositionRef(const boost::shared_ptr<Position>& base,
 			int offset = 0)