Donkey anaphora is in-scope binding
Chris Barker, Chung-chieh Shan
Abstract
We propose that the antecedent of a donkey pronoun takes scope over and
binds the donkey pronoun, just like any other quantificational antecedent
would bind a pronoun. We flesh out this idea in a grammar that
compositionally derives the truth conditions of donkey sentences
containing conditionals and relative clauses, including those involving
modals and proportional quantifiers. For example, an indefinite in the
antecedent of a conditional can bind a donkey pronoun in the consequent
by taking scope over the entire conditional. Our grammar manages
continuations using three independently motivated type-shifters, Lift,
Lower, and Bind. Empirical support comes from donkey weak crossover
(*He beats it if a farmer owns a donkey): in our system, a
quantificational binder need not c-command a pronoun that it binds, but
must be evaluated before it, so that donkey weak crossover is just a
special case of weak crossover. We compare our approach to situation-based
E-type pronoun analyses, as well as to dynamic accounts such as Dynamic
Predicate Logic. A new 'tower' notation makes derivations considerably
easier to follow and manipulate than some previous grammars based on
continuations.
doi:10.3765/sp.1.1
BibTeX info
See also the interactive tutorial about the system in this paper
binds the donkey pronoun, just like any other quantificational antecedent
would bind a pronoun. We flesh out this idea in a grammar that
compositionally derives the truth conditions of donkey sentences
containing conditionals and relative clauses, including those involving
modals and proportional quantifiers. For example, an indefinite in the
antecedent of a conditional can bind a donkey pronoun in the consequent
by taking scope over the entire conditional. Our grammar manages
continuations using three independently motivated type-shifters, Lift,
Lower, and Bind. Empirical support comes from donkey weak crossover
(*He beats it if a farmer owns a donkey): in our system, a
quantificational binder need not c-command a pronoun that it binds, but
must be evaluated before it, so that donkey weak crossover is just a
special case of weak crossover. We compare our approach to situation-based
E-type pronoun analyses, as well as to dynamic accounts such as Dynamic
Predicate Logic. A new 'tower' notation makes derivations considerably
easier to follow and manipulate than some previous grammars based on
continuations.
doi:10.3765/sp.1.1
BibTeX info
See also the interactive tutorial about the system in this paper
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