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Anaphoric pronouns and bound variables

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Thomas Wasow
Thomas Wasow*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
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Abstract

Several syntactic rules in English are sensitive to the difference between pronouns and full NP's, and they sometimes must apply before anaphora relations can be determined. If anaphoric pronouns and their antecedents are derived from identical underlying forms (such as variables), then these rules cannot apply correctly, because they will be unable to distinguish between anaphors and antecedents. This argument does not depend crucially on the usual ordering assumptions. No such argument applies, however, to a theory in which pronouns are present in deep structure and are associated with antecedents by means of an interpretive rule.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , June 1975 , pp. 368 - 383
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 by Linguistic Society of America

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