Pro-forms

Contents: Pro-forms | pronominals |

Pro-forms include pronominal and anaphors. Anaphors need an antecedent in the syntax, with which they are coindexed. Coindexation is conidered an interpretive rule as opposed to a generative rule. Both forms have no reference. A referent must be found. The feature [+Pro] is used to indicate this property.

Pronominals in English cannot be coindexed with an antecedent int he same clause:

1. John saw him.

Here, him cannot be coindexed with John., The antecedent for him either occurs in a preceding sentence or is determined from the discourse context.

1. Bill thinks that John saw him.

Here, him is either coindexed with Bill or it refers to someone in the context of the situation who may not have been mentioned. This sort of thing is common, actually.

Anaphors must be coindexed with an antecedent in the same clause in which it occurs (the so-called 'Clausemate condition.'

[pro] (little pro) is a pronominal that has no phonetic representation ([NULL]). It must be marked for Case, and it often is marked for gender, person, and number (depending on the language). The null subject of imperatives is [pro] marked as [nom], [-1st], and [±Pl]:

1. Just look at yourself (singular pro) = [pro just look at yourself]
2. Just look at yourselves (plural pro) = [pro just look at yourselves].

The anaphor here must be coindexed with the subject [pro], which can be either [+Pl] or [-Pl].