Anaphora and Argument Structure: Topics in the Syntax and Semantics of Reflexives and ...

158 Pages·1999·0.56 MB·English

Anaphora and Argument Structure:
Topics in the Syntax and Semantics of
Reflexives and Reciprocals
AshAsudeh
MPhil
Centre forCognitiveScience
The Universityof Edinburgh
1998

Formyfriends. Theyknow.

Abstract
Thisthesispresentsanexaminationofthesyntacticandsemanticpropertiesofnaturallanguage
reflexive andreciprocalexpressions, whicharecommonlyreferredtoas anaphorsinsyntactic
theory. Theworkiscarriedoutinthebroadercontextof‘bindingtheory’and‘controltheory’.
Bindingtheoryhastwomainaspects. Thefirstaspectistoexplainthedistribution ofnominal
expressions in natural language sentences. The second aspect is to link this syntactic repre-
sentation to a theory of natural language semantics, such that the semantics is constrained by
thesyntacticrelationshipsbetweennominals. Controltheoryisabouttheinterpretationofun-
derstood(phoneticallynull)argumentsofcomplementstoacertainclassofpredicatesthatare
characterizedsemantically. ThesyntacticframeworkassumedisHead-drivenPhraseStructure
Grammar (HPSG). In this framework, binding theory and control theory are intimately tied
togetherthroughthesyntaxofreflexives.
The binding and control theories developed here are based on a level of representation
called‘argument structure’. Argumentstructureisconstruedasanabstractlinkingrepresenta-
tionbetweenthelevelof(lexical)semanticsandthelevelofsyntacticallyrelevantgrammatical
relations. Itis definedasarepresentationoftheother expressionsthatagiven wordorphrase
must combine with in order to be semantically and syntactically saturated. A strong interpre-
tationofthisdefinitionisassumedhere: allsyntacticallyandsemanticallyrelevantarguments
arepresentatthelevelofargumentstructure.
There are four main goals in this thesis: first, to extend and revise problematic previous
versions of the theories of binding and control in HPSG; second, to examine the implications
that these revisions and related phenomena have for the representation of argument structure;
third,todevelopageneralprogramfortheinterpretationoftheindexnotationusedinbinding
theory;fourth,totestwhetherreciprocalexpressionsshouldberepresentedinthesemanticsas
quantifiersorplurals.
The outline of the thesis is as follows. Chapter one presents an introduction to the issues
involved and a brief discussion of the framework. The HPSG theories of binding and control
are presented and formalized in chapter two. There are various problems that ensue which
are discussed therein. In chapter three, an extended binding theory is presented. This theory
consistsofasimplifiedcore,whichsolves certainoftheproblemsnotedinchaptertwo,anda
newconstraintonthedistributionofanaphoracalledtheAntecedentClosenessConstraint. The
coverageoftheextendedbindingtheoryisdemonstrated. Inchapterfour,theinterplaybetween
argument structureandcontroltheoryisexplored,andseveralnewproblemsarediscussed. A
revised control theory is presented which deals with these problems, as well as the ones dis-
cussedinchaptertwo. Thecoverageoftherevisedcontroltheoryispresented. Thisincludesa
demonstrationoftheapplicationoftheAntecedentClosenessConstrainttocontrolledcomple-
ments. Thefifthchapterpresentsaprogramforinterpretingindices,withspecificreferenceto
DiscourseRepresentationTheory. Thechapterendswithadiscussionoflogophoricreflexives
in English. The sixth chapter presents a discussion of reciprocal interpretation, with specific
attentionpaidtowhetherthereciprocalisapluraloraquantifier.

Acknowledgements
So many people have in some way aided me while writing this thesis, that I am sure to leave
somebodyouthere. AllIcandoisapologizeinadvanceandassurethemthatIdidn’t doiton
purpose. And of course, those that I do thank are not responsible for any errors that remain.
Withoutfurtherado,then.
The financial support for my stay at the University of Edinburgh came from the Associa-
tion of Commonwealth Universities, who provided the funding, and the British Council, who
administered the award. My thanks to both these organizations for giving me such a great
opportunity.
The actual preparation of the thesis document would have been impossible without the
most patient man in the world: Lex “LATEX” Holt. And a lot of things would have taken ten
times as long without Frank Keller, whose /home was my /home on many occasions. David
“Gnu” Sterratt’s Emacs wizardry made writing this much more tolerable than it would have
beenotherwise. SimoneTeufel,besidesfuelingmewithplentyofpizza,alsohelpedmecome
togripswithalmosteveryaspectofcomputingthatturnedouttobeuseful.
Theintellectualdebtforthisthesisisspreadverythin,becauseitisowedtosomanypeople.
Thepeoplewhoprovidedthefoundationweremyundergraduateteachers: AnnLaubstein,Rob
Stainton,KumikoMurasugi,andAndyBrook. Somewherearoundthetopofthegurulistcome
AlexLascaridesandEwanKlein,mysupervisorsonthis. Alextoleratedmeconstantlypopping
intoherofficeandEwantoleratedmewalkingoffwithasizablefractionofhisbooksforayear
orso. JesseTseng, poorguy, hadtotoleratebothoftheseannoying habitsaswellaslistening
toalotofcrazystuffaboutHPSGthatIdidn’tdarebothermysupervisorswith. ClaireGrover
alsogave meanamazingamount ofhelpwith HPSGandputupextraordinarily wellwithmy
frequentintrusions. TwodistinguishedlinguistswhoIfeelespeciallygratefulto,sincetheyin
nowaywereobligedtohelpme,areIvanSagandBarbaraPartee. ProfessorSagwasine-mail
contactwithmeonvariousoccasionsduringthewritingofthisthesisandhiscommentswere
alwayshelpful. ProfessorParteeprovidedamazinglydetailedandjustplainamazingcomments
on the chapter about reciprocals. If I had managed to incorporate more of her comments and
suggestions, the chapter would have been considerably improved. Other people who listened
tomyrantingswithoutclearcalltodosowere: TheodoraAlexopolou,AnnaBabarczy,Ronnie
Cann, Kook-Hee Gill, Katie Greenfield, Caroline Heycock, Frank Keller, Ali Knott, Mirella
Lapata,WillLowe,AsifaMajid,ScottMcDonald,LineMikkelsen,PadraicMonaghan,David
TugwellandGertWestermann.
Many ofthesepeoplesurprisinglyalsodiddoubledutyasmyfriends. Butaspecialshout
has to go out to the Annandale St. crew: Jesse, Simone, Mirella, Frank, and Billy. And all
thewhile,holdingdownthefortinOttawa,weremysteadfastchumsAndrewJordan,Gonzalo
Lazo, Craig Lee, Simon Pottery, and Paul Spendlove. Their presence is felt throughout the
thesis.
Without my parents and my sister, who have given me constant love and support over the
years, I would never have even been in the position of writing this thesis in the first place. I
owe them more than can be imagined. But, the person to whom I owe the greatest debt, both
personal and professional, and whose constant encouragement and simple presence made the
wholethingworthwhileisthelovelyandtalentedLineHoveMikkelsen. Thanks,Line.
Declaration
I declare that this thesis was composed by myself and that the work contained herein is my
own,exceptwhereexplicitlystatedotherwiseinthetext.
(ArshiaAsudeh)