Primitives of Binding

Abstract

This article explains the conditions on the binding of pronouns, simplex anaphors, and complex anaphors, distinguishing the roles of the computational system, interpretive procedures, and discourse storage. It argues for a general principle of economy counting interpretive steps. Locality conditions on binding are shown to follow from this economy principle and independent principles of (minimalist) syntax, providing the means to encode certain dependencies, most economically, within the computational system. It shows that the role of complex anaphors in licensing reflexivization follows from an interpretive condition holding at the conceptual-intentional (C-I)interface.