Anaphora A Cross-linguistic Study [Paperback]

Understanding any communication depends on the listener or reader recognizing that some words refer to what has already been said or written (his, its, he, there, etc.). This mode of reference, anaphora, involves complicated cognitive and syntactic processes, which people usually perform unerringly, but which present formidable problems for the linguist and cognitive scientist trying to explain precisely how comprehension is achieved.
Yan Huang provides an extensive and accessible overview of the major contemporary issues surrounding anaphora and gives a critical survey of the many and diverse contemporary approaches to it. He provides by far the fullest cross-linguistic account yet published: Dr Huang's survey and analysis are based on a rich collection of data drawn from around 450 of the world's languages.

Typologies of anaphora
Introduction
Typologies of anaphora
Anaphora and syntactic categories
Anaphora and truth-conditions
Anaphora and contexts
Anaphora and discourse: reference-tracking systems
Organisation of the book
Syntactic approaches to anaphora
Classical Chomskyan theory of anaphora
Typology of NPs
Binding theory
Control theory
Revisions and alternatives
Summary
Null subjects and null objects
Null subjects
Null objects
Summary
Long-distance reflexivisation
The phenomenon
Properties and theoretical issues
Long-distance reflexivisation in generative grammar
Summary
Conclusion
Semantic approaches to anaphora
VP-ellipsis
Definition and properties
Theoretical issues
Two general approaches: syntactically oriented versus semantically oriented
Summary
Binding and control: some semantic alternatives
Binding
Control
Summary
Logophoricity
Background
Logophoric pronouns in African languages
Long-distance reflexives in East Asian languages
Discourse representation
Summary
Conclusion