Instructor: Adriana Todea

atodea@yahoo.com
Office hours: Friday 2-3 p.m., Alpha Centre room

Introduction to Generative Grammar

Course 9: Binding theory

WEEK 13

Outline1

How do personal, possessive, reflexive pronouns and reciprocals

acquire reference?
(Johni and Peterj are top students)
Johni thinks that hei,j is intelligent.
Johni thinks him*i,j intelligent.
The studentsk believed each otherk to be the best.
This is not only a semantic issue, but also a syntactic issue solved
by Binding theory.
Binding theory describes the binary relation between the binder (an
antecedent) and the bindee ( a personal, possessive, reflexive
pronoun or reciprocal).
Binding theory is a syntactic rule that applies to semantic
information, specifically, it identifies which expressions constitute
acceptable antecedents for the bound elements in the sentence.
A binding relation creates a chain of co-referentiality :
Chain (binder, bindee)
The referential chain (antecedent, pronoun)
is signaled by co-indexation (graphically marking co-referentiality) :
(antecedenti, pronouni)
Co-indexation: If two expressions co-refer they are assigned the same
index in subscript.

You find in this outline the content of the slides that I project during the course,
which contain the main topics and also structures and diagrams which may be difficult
and time consuming for you to copy during my lecture. They are made available to you
before class to save time and to make note-taking easier, but not unnecessary!
The outline as such (without your notes covering the detailed explanations that I give
during the course) cannot constitute a sufficient source of information when preparing
for the exam. If you miss the class, it is strongly recommended that this outline be used
as a guide to the bibliography indicated at the end of this document.
1

Course 9

Page 1

A is bound to B if A is a pronominal or an anaphor and A and B are

co-indexed (are co-referential).
Binding chains
(Johni, hei)
(Peterj, hej)
(Peterj, himj)
(the studentsk, each otherk)
Traditionally called pronouns subcategorize as
pronominals: possessive and personal pronouns
and
anaphors : reflexives and reciprocals (each other, one another)
Reciprocals are inherently plural.
The principles of Binding theory
Principle A:
An anaphor must be bound in its minimal governing category.
(An anaphor must be bound locally (in its local domain)).
Principle B:
A pronominal must be free in its minimal governing category.
(A pronominal must be free locally (in its local domain)).
Principle C:
Referring expressions must be free everywhere, they cannot be
bound.
Definition:
The governing category of A is the maximal projection
containing - A,
-the governor of A,
-and the subject of the governor.

Course 9

Page 2

Course 9

Page 3

Course 9

Page 4

Identify the governing category of each underlined item and assign values to
them by co-indexing.

Course 9

Page 5

Course 9

Page 6

Further practice
Identify the governing category of each underlined item and assign values to
them by co-indexing.
1. Mary believes that she is the best candidate.
2. Mary believes her to be the best candidate.
3. Mary believes herself to be the best candidate.
4. Mary wonders who suspects her of being the Midnight Watcher.
5. Mary is convinced that she saw herself on the list of students that
have passed the exam.
6. Mary expects her to call her.

Bibliography:
Vivian Cook & Mark Newson (1996) Chomskys Universal Grammar,
second edition, Blackwell, pp 61-70 (you can find it in the Generative
Grammar dossier at the library)

Course 9

Page 7