Reentrancy in feature structures

Carl Pollard pollard at ling.ohio-state.edu
Fri Jul 5 03:45:44 UTC 2002


Mike Maxwell wrote:

>
OK, then how are reflexives handled under a system where co-indexing is
not syntactic (and, I presume, therefore inaccessible to the
morphology)?  Do you just have a binary feature 'reflexive'?  (And if
there are languages where reciprocals are represented in the morphology,
a feature 'reciprocal'?)
>>


I don't know. The only theories of coindexing I've ever advocated
so far have been ones that should probably be called syntactic.

In order for someone to answer your question, s/he would first
have to say whether there still *IS* any notion of co-indexing, and
if so, what it is. For example, if one maintains that there is such
a thing as coindexing but that it is something semantic not syntactic,
then one must first say just what exactly coindexing *IS*, in semantic
terms.

Perhaps some readers who advocate nonsyntactic theories of the kinds
of facts that have been handled under the rubric of "Principle A"
and "Principle B" (however formulated) could address these issues?

Carl



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