Binding Theory Presented By:

Binding Theory

Presented By:

Jayant Ameta : 07005020

Chirag Sethi : 07005022

Rachit Gupta : 07d05008

Contents

Motivation

Introduction to Binding Theory

Types of Noun Phrases

Key Concepts

Introduction to Binder/Bound NP

Introduction to C-commands

Conclusions

References

Motivation[1]

That it rains bothers (Peter/him/himself)

That it rains bothers (Peter/him)

Peter watches (Peter/him/himself) in the mirror

Peter watches (himself) in the mirror

Peter thinks that I hate (Peter/him/himself)

Peter thinks that I hate (him)

Binding Theory – I[2]

Describes the conditions on the structural relations between nouns.

Concerned with three types of nouns

R – Expressions

Pronouns

Anaphors

Binding Theory - II

The key insight captured in binding theory is that the (un)availability of co-reference between 2 NP’s depends primarily on 2 factors

Morphological shape of the NP’s

Structural relationship between the NP’s

Types of Noun Phrases[3]

R-Expressions (full NP’s)

These express content and get its meaning by referring to an entity in the world

Eg

:- Peter, the Indian Prime Minister,

राम

Anaphors (Reflexive and Reciprocals)

An NP that obligatorily gets its meaning from another NP in the sentence.

Eg

:- myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves, each other,

स्वयं

,

खुद

,

एक दूसरे

Types of Noun Phrases

Pronominals (Non-reflexive pronouns)

An NP that may (but need not) get its meaning from another word in the sentence. It can also get its meaning from a noun previously mentioned in the discourse, or by context

E.g. :- he, she, it, him, her, I, us, we, you,

तुम

,

मैं

, etc.

Key Concepts

Indexing

NPs are marked by numerical indices

NPs are co-referent(i.e., they refer to the same entity) if and only if they have the same index.

The actual value of indices is not important.

Antecedent

NP ‘A’ is the antecedent of NP ‘B’ if and only if

‘A’ precedes ‘B’.

‘A’ and ‘B’ co-refer.

Examples – No Antecedents

That it rains bothers Peter

1

.

वर्षा से राम

1

को चिंता होती है

|

That it rains bothers him

1

.

वर्षा से उसको

1

चिंता होती है

|

*That it rains bothers himself

1

.

*

वर्षा से स्वयं

1

को चिंता होती है

|

Observations:

Anaphors can’t occur since no antecedent is present.

Pronominals and r-expressions do not necessarily require antecedent in same clause.

Examples – Local Antecedents

*Peter

1

watches Peter

1

in the mirror.

*

राम

1

दर्पण में राम

1

को देखता है

|

*Peter

1

watches him

1

in the mirror.

*

राम

1

दर्पण में

उसको

1

देखता है

|

Peter

1

watches himself

1

in the mirror.

राम

1

दर्पण में

स्वयं

1

को देखता है

|

Observations:

It is reverse than in the previous case.

Only anaphors are permitted with local antecedents.

Examples- Non-local Antecedents

*Peter

2

thinks that I hate Peter

2

.

*

राम

2

सोचता है कि मैं राम

2

से द्वेष करता हूँ

|

Peter

2

thinks that I hate him

2

.

राम

2

सोचता है कि मैं

उस

से

2

द्वेष करता हूँ

|

*Peter

2

thinks that I hate himself

2

.

*

राम

2

सोचता है कि मैं

स्वयं

2

से द्वेष करता हूँ

|

Observations:

The indexed NPs are separated by ‘that’ or ‘

कि

’, hence they are not in locality of each other.

Only pronominals are permitted with non-local antecedents.

Examples - Conclusion

Configuration

Anaphors

Pronominals

R-Expression

No-Antecedent

*

OK

OK

Local Antecedent

OK

*

*

Non-Local Antecedent

*

OK

*

Combining the results from the previous examples

we get the following

1

Reflexive/Non-Reflexive Pronouns

Based on the above set of observations we get the following Preliminary Binding Conditions:

(A) A reflexive pronoun must have an antecedent within its local clause.

(B) A non-reflexive pronoun must not have an antecedent within its local clause.

A is within B’s local clause if A and B are dominated by the same set of clausal nodes.

Issues with Preliminary Binding Conditions

Peter’s

1

cat accompanies him

1/2

to temple

राम

1

की बिल्ली उसके

1/2

साथ मंदिर जाती है ।

*Peter’s

1

cat accompanies himself

1/2

to temple

*

राम

1

की बिल्ली

स्वयं

1/2

के साथ मंदिर जाती है ।Here ‘Peter’ or ‘राम’ is a local antecedent and violates the Binding conditions mentioned in the previous slideSo we need to modify the binding conditions

Introducing Binder/Bound

NP ‘A’ binds NP ‘B’ if and only if

‘A’ and ‘B’ are co-indexed

‘A’ precedes ‘B’

‘A’ and ‘B’ are

clausemates

(arguments to the same predicate here, accompanies)

‘A’ is called the binder and ‘B’ is called bound

In the previous example

Peter’s cat and him were

clausemates

, but not Peter and him

Preliminary Binding Conditions - Modified

(A) A reflexive pronoun must have a binder within its local clause.

(B) A non-reflexive pronoun must not have a binder within its local clause.

Full NP’s

His

1

cat accompanies Peter

1

to temple

उसकी

1

बिल्ली राम

1

के साथ मंदिर जाती है

।

Peter’s

1

cat accompanies Peter

1

to temple

राम

1

की बिल्ली राम

1

के साथ मंदिर जाती है

।

Although, in the previous table we saw that a full NP does not have any antecedent in the local clause, the above sentences are valid English sentences.Thus introducing the concept of Binder for Full NPs leads us to the 3rd Binding Condition(C) A full NP must not be bound

Issues with Binder

*Peter

1

thinks that I hate Peter

1

*

राम

1

सोचता है कि मैं राम

1

से द्वेष करता हूँ

|

According to Binding Conditions, a Full NP must not be bound(as ‘that’ or ‘

कि

’ separates the clauses), so the above sentence should be legit.

However, the above sentence is invalid.

Thus we need to modify the Binder definition

C-commands

Node ‘A’ c-commands node ‘B’ if and only if

Neither ‘A’ nor ‘B’ dominates each other

Every branching dominator of ‘A’ must be a dominator of ‘B’.

Example

The parse tree for Hindi is same with the difference that NP precedes V while branching VP.

New Definition of Binding

NP ‘A’ binds NP ‘B’ if and only if

‘A’ and ‘B’ are co-indexed

‘A’ precedes ‘B’

‘A’ c-commands ‘B’

Explanation through C-Command

The parse tree for Hindi is same with the difference that NP precedes V while branching VP.

Conclusions

Binding Theory provides insights into how Noun Phrases are co-indexed.

Binding Theory can be used to disambiguate sentences ( the binding conditions can be used to eliminate invalid parse

trees).

References

[1] Binding Theory by Daniel

Buring

, Cambridge University

Press

(2005)

[2]

ctlhpan.cityu.edu.hk/

haihuapan

/course

[3]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaphora_(linguistics)

Thank You