A Puzzle in Binding: Half Reflexives and Locally Bound Pronouns A Comparative Study of Anaphoric Systems in Indonesian, Javanese, Palembangnese, City Jambi and Village Jambi

Abstract

The Canonical Binding Theory (Chomsky, 1981) assumes three major classes of expressions, anaphors, pronominals and R-expressions. However, it has been found that many languages have a richer system. In this thesis I investigate the anaphoric systems of a number of closely related languages spoken in Indonesia. The selected languages have a further element that is in some sense in-between anaphors and pronominals. I refer to these as 'half reflexives', since they can be both locally and non-locally bound. The languages under discussion show a further interesting puzzle, in that the pronoun dio in Palembangnese and in the variety spoken Village Jambi can have a reflexive interpretation. Contrarily, the pronoun dio in City Jambi differs from the Village dialect and is subject to Principle B. In this thesis I argue that the complexity of half reflexives explains why reflexivity in the selected languages is only licensed, but not enforced. I further show that the differences in binding behavior of dio in Palembangnese and the Village Jambi variety as compared to the other languages can be explained on the basis of an independent property, namely the absence of a number contrast.