Indices and Identity (Linguistic Inquiry Monographs)

✍ Scribed by Robert Fiengo, Robert May

• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 330
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Under what conditions are expressions of a language the same; when are they different? Indices and Identity focuses on this question in the context of the theory of anaphora and on the role of indices in characterizing syntactic and semantic identity of expressions.Fiengo and May develop two main themes within the theory of anaphora. The first pertains to the meaning of coindexing and non-coindexing -- the correspondence between indexical relations among expressions and the valuation relation that holds among them -- while the second is the development of Dependency Theory, the theory of the relations of occurrences of indices. The novelty of Fiengo and May's approach lies with their characterization of indexical dependencies and the conditions under which structures manifest the same or different dependency.In particular, Indices and Identity emphasizes issues raised by strict and sloppy identity in ellipsis, exploring what Fiengo and May call "the eliminative puzzles of ellipsis." The significance of these puzzles is that they show the shortcomings of current theories of anaphora in ellipsis, while illustrating an application of Dependency Theory to complex cases of strict and sloppy identity.Elliptical contexts in turn lead to consideration of the embedding of the formal syntactic notions of identity arising from indices and dependencies within more general notions of structural identity. This relates to a consideration of the foundations of reconstruction, which, the authors argue, is syntactic identity up to indexical identity and vehicle change -- variation in the syntactic form of expression of arguments.The book concludes with a discussion of the relation of reconstruction, logical representation in grammar, and the application of grammatical constraints. The discussion focuses on antecedent contained deletion, and stands independently as a comprehensive study of this construction.Linguistic Inquiry Monograph No. 24

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter......Page 1
Contents......Page 2
Series Forward......Page 6
Preface......Page 8
Acknowledgments......Page 12
1.1 Indices and Coreference......Page 16
1.2 Indices and Discourse......Page 29
1.3 Identity Statements......Page 36
1.4 Predication......Page 45
2.1 Indices and Dependencies......Page 62
2.2 Indexical Dependencies......Page 66
2.3 The Semantics of Indices and Dependencies......Page 78
2.4 Dependency Theory and Binding Theory......Page 96
3.1 Identity and Dependencies......Page 108
3.2 On the Distribution Strict and Sloppy Identity......Page 111
3.3 Strict and Sloppy Inference......Page 132
3.4 Belief De Se and Indexical Types......Page 138
4.1 Eliminative Puzzles of Ellipsis......Page 144
4.2 The Many-Pronouns Puzzle......Page 162
4.3 The Many-Clauses Puzzles......Page 180
4.4 Ellipsis and Discourse......Page 197
Ch.5 On Reconstruction......Page 206
6.1 Antecedent-Contained Deletion......Page 252
6.2 Scope of Quantification and Scope of Reconstruction......Page 267
6.3 The Uniformity Thesis and Grammatical Constraints......Page 273
6.4 Logical Form and Binding Theory......Page 279
6.4.1 Principle C......Page 280
6.4.2 Principle A......Page 284
6.4.3 Principle B......Page 286
6.5 Vehicle Change......Page 290
6.5.1 Crossover......Page 293
6.5.3 Improper "Movement"......Page 296
6.5.4 Subjacency Effects......Page 299
6.5.5 Parasitic Gaps......Page 300
6.6 What Is Reconstruction?......Page 303
References......Page 314
Index......Page 324