Binding theory—Structure sensitivity of referential dependencies

Such expressions as simple pronouns (her) or reflexive pronouns (himself) are “referentially incomplete”, in that their intrinsic content does not suffice to determine their referential import under normal discourse conditions. Such expressions enter into referential dependency relations with antecedents. This article presents and discusses aspects of the binding theory, that is some aspects of what is known about such referential dependency that crucially depend on syntactic constituent structures as well as other syntactic properties such as movement dependencies.

► Binding concerns referential dependencies between pronouns and nominal expressions. ► Binding is sensitive to syntactic structures and movement relations. ► We offer approximate formulations of Conditions A, B, C and pronominal binding. ► We offer a new formulation of Conditions A on the basis of findings in French.