Non-Redundancy: A Semantic Reinterpretation of Binding Theory

Abstract

Within generative grammar, Binding Theory has traditionally been considered a part of syntax, in the sense that some derivations that would otherwise be interpretable are ruled out by purely formal principles. Thus He likes him would in standard theories yield a perfectly acceptable interpretation: but it is ruled out by Chomsky's Condition B, which in this case prohibits co-arguments from bearing the same index. We explore a semantic alternative in which Condition B, Condition C, the Locality of Variable Binding of Kehler 1993 and Fox 2000, and Weak and Strong Crossover effects follow from a non-standard interpretive procedure (modified from de Bruijn's interpretation of the A-calculus and Ben Shalom 1996). Constituents are evaluated top-down under a pair of two sequences, the sequence of evaluations and the quantificational sequence q. The initial sequence of evaluation always contains the speaker and the addressee (thus if John is talking to Mary, the initial sequence of evaluation will be fm, as we assume throughout). The bulk of the work is then done by a principle of Non-Redundancy, which prevents any object from appearing twice in any sequence of evaluation. We may think of the sequence of evaluation as a memory register, and of Non-Redundancy ~s a principle of cognitive economy which prohibits any element from being listed twice in the same register'. For reasons of space, we do not compare this proposal to other semantic approaches to Binding Theory, e.g. important works by Jacobson, Keenan, Branco, Butler, Barker & Shan.