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Indefiniteness and anaphoricity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Peter Cole
Peter Cole*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois
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Abstract

Grammarians working within the framework of semantically-based grammar have argued that syntactic representations are not arbitrary, but rather have their basis in semantics. In this paper it is further proposed that syntactic processes (rules and constraints) may have a semantic basis. Evidence is presented that the constraint against backward pronominalization with indefinite antecedents, which is found in a wide variety of languages, derives from the semantic properties of various classes of definite noun phrases.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , December 1974 , pp. 665 - 674
Copyright
Copyright © 1974 by Linguistic Society of America

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References

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