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UNINTERPRETED FEATURES ON BOUND VARIABLE PRONOUNS
Irene Heim (MIT)
Friday, February 25, 3:30 pm, MJH Rm 126
Are person, number and gender features on bound-variable pronouns
semantically interpreted, or are they just a superficial reflex of
agreement between the pronoun and its antecedent? Some (e.g., Heim 1991,
Kratzer 1998, Stechow 2003) argue that at least some pronouns have the
semantics of featureless, unrestricted, variables. Others (e.g., Cooper
1983, Schlenker 2003, Rullmann 2004) derive good predictions from the
assumption that features on bound pronouns restrict the range of the
relevant variable. It has also been noted (Rullmann, Safir 2005) that
simple deletion or copying rules such as those proposed in the literature
do not really succeed in predicting the distribution of features on bound
pronouns. I will review and defend the case for uninterpreted features and
try to provide a more accurate account of their distribution.
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