Page 233 - Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Language

(a) Jon,-nil bily-laa aaplyaa, gharaat maarle. (24) John,-ERG Billy-ACC self,'s house-in hit
'John, hit Billy in self(/./s house.'
(b) Bil,-laa jon,-kaduun aaplyaa, gharaat maarle gele.
Bill;-ACC John,-by self,'s house-in hit was 'Billy was hit by John, in self//>/s house.'
In Norwegian, the antecedent of the reflexive sin is the grammatical subject, and hence changes under passivization. (Some speakers allow both indexed NPs in (23b) to antecede sin.) In contrast in Marathi, the antecedent is always the one performing the action, the logical subject, and cannot be the surface subject in a passive example like (24b).
Above, it was remarked* that Principles A and B of the Binding Theory are (supposed to be) comp- lementary in English. Generally, complementarity between anaphors and pronouns does not hold. For example, English allows many cases of overlap.
John, thinks that these pictures of him,/himself, are (25) not veryflattering.
In Marathi, a different situation obtains: there are two reflexive forms, aapaN, which is bound to logical subjects, and swataah, which is bound to surface sub- jects. However, the pronoun, to, is like English him, free from all coarguments within its minimal clause.
As the data in this section indicate, there is sig- nificant variation across languages in the principles determining binding of anaphors. Determining the precise parameters and range of variation that is poss- ible is a topic of considerable research in the late twentieth century.
1.4 Logophors
In some anaphoric systems, the choice of antecedent is not determined syntactically. Pronouns with this property are known as 'logophors'—the ones which are 'bearer of the word.' In the words of G. N. Clem- ents, the antecedent of a logophoric pronoun must be the one 'whose speech, thoughts, feelings, or general state of consciousness are reported.'
In the West-African language Ewe, a special set of pronouns has logophoric uses. Here ye is a logophoric pronoun, and e is nonlogophoric.
(a) Kofi be ye-dzo. (26) Kofi say Loo-leave
'Kofi, said that he, left.'
(b) Kofi be e-dzo.
Kofi say FRO-leave 'Kofi, said that he/ left.'
In other languages, the reflexive pronoun takes on a logophoric function. The examples in (27) are from Icelandic, and (28) are Japanese. In each case, the example is well-formed only if the antecedent of the reflexive was the source of some communication.
(a) Hann, sagdi ad sig, vantadi hsefileika. (27) He, said that self/ lacked ability
'He, said that he, lacked ability.'
(b) *Honum, var sagt ad sig, vantadi haefileika. He, was told that self, lacked ability 'He, was told that he, lacked ability.'
(a) *Yamada ga Hanako, ni zibun, no (28) Yamada MOMHanako, DATself, GEN
ie de atatakaku motenasareta
house at warmly was-treated
'Y amada was warmly entertained by Hanako, at her, house.'
(b) Yamada ga
Yamada MOMHanako, DATself, GEN
ie ni kuru yoo ni tanomareta.
house to come COMP was-asked 'Yamada was asked by Hanako, to come to her, house.'
Such phenomena are far from rare. Languages on every continent show some logophoric-type behavior. Even English reflexivepronouns show such sensitivity when they fall outside of the binding theory, as exem- plified in (29).
John, was very angry, Those pictures of himself, (29) in the hot tub had been takenillegally.
One senses that the second sentence here is a reflection of John's thoughts. It is possible that this logophoric binding is also at work in examples like (18).
1.5 Other Kinds of Anaphora
The discussion thus far has been limited to pronouns that take NP antecedents. As noted in the opening paragraph, however, there are other kinds of anaphora. Some involve pronouns or other overt elements that take something other than NPs as ante- cedents. Others involve ellipsis—that is, a con- struction in which something seems to be missing, but can be understood from the context. Two issues have been the focus of attention regarding the syntax of these types of anaphoric elements: what are their poss- ible antecedents; and whether an optimal analysis involves positing some sort of deletion of an identical 'copy' of the missing material.
It is shown in (30) that backwards anaphora is not limited to pronouns, and (31) shows that an analogue to Principle C is operative in these cases, as well. (Coindexing will be used to indicate antecedence, even though BT is not applicable.)
(a) Anyonewhowantsto ,can (30) [learn to lambada],.
(b) Anyone who wants one, can buy a gun,.
(a) *Patdid , after Chris [learned to (31) lambada],.
(b) "One, can be bought by anyone who wants to buy a gun,.
Thus, the structural relations that may obtain between anaphoric elements and their antecedents appear to be the same for a variety of types of anaphora.
In contrast, the types of antecedents seem to vary. 211
Hanako, ni
zibun, no
Anaphora