Antecedent Containment: A Dependency Grammar Solution in Terms of Catenae

Abstract

Abstract. The paper presents a new solution to an old problem, the problem of antecedent containment and the infinite regress that it gives rise to. The solution is couched in a dependency grammar (DG) framework and is possible by acknowledging DGcatenae. The catena is a novel unit of syntactic analysis. Pronouns that appear to be contained within their antecedents actually take non‐constituent catenae as their antecedents. These catenae quite naturally exclude the pronouns, so that antecedent containment never occurs. This account acknowledges surface configurations only. No appeals are made to derivational mechanisms or abstract representations.

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