Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T12:47:37.809Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

15 - Syntax, binding, and patterns of anaphora

from Part IV - Syntactic processes: their nature, locality, and motivation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2013

Marcel den Dikken
Affiliation:
City University of New York
Get access

Summary

The chapter presents the understanding about the portion of innate human language faculty that permits to understand the patterns of anaphoric possibilities permitted by linguistic forms and sentences that contain them. Although semantic issues intrude constantly, the primary focus of this chapter is on the consequences of the pattern of anaphora for syntactic theory. An anaphoric relation is typically said to hold whenever the semantic value of a linguistic form is related to the value of some previous or anticipated mention. The chapter lays out some boundary conditions for the syntax/semantics interface that anaphora questions inevitably invoke. The chapter explores Chomsky's Binding Theory. The richness of anaphoric morphology and its consequences for the syntax of anaphora are also discussed. Any plausible theory of anaphora must distinguish relations of dependent identity, pronouns bound as variables, and obviation. Competition-based theories of anaphora take the complementarities in the distributions of pronouns and anaphors.
Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×