Weak versus Strong Resumption

Weak versus Strong Resumption
Guilliot, N & Malkawi, N
University of Nantes (LLING 3827)
This talk focuses on the distribution and interpretation of resumption in Jordanian Arabic with
respect to a well-known distinction: weak resumption (clitics and doubled pronouns) versus
strong resumption (strong pronouns and epithets). More precisely, we will concentrate on the
following two properties with respect to that distinction:
• the ability for a (resumptive) pronoun to license a quantificational antecedent;
• the ability for a resumptive pronoun to license a reconstructed reading of its antecedent.
1. First asymmetry: quantificational antecedent
On the one hand, weak pronouns (clitics and doubled pronouns) can freely be used as bound
variables. And similarly as a resumptive strategy, they can occur with a quantificational
antecedent, be it within an island or not (see dislocation cases in (1) and (2)).
Strong pronouns (together with epithets), on the other hand, are subject to more stringent
restrictions. In order to give rise to a covariant reading, they need to be separated from its
quantificational antecedent by an island, as shown by the contrast between (3) and (4) (similar
examples in Aoun et al (1998, 2000, 2001) and Choueiri (2002) among others).
1. Kul bint karim gal ?in- ha /-ha hi raH tinJaH
Every girl Karim said.3sm that-Cl/-Cl she will success 3sf
“Every girl, Karim said that she will pass”
2. kul zalamih zςilt-u li ?annu –uh/-uh hu raħ bidun
every man upset.1sg because –CL/ -CL he went without
ma yiguul maς salamih
Neg saying goodby
“Every man, I was upset because he went without saying goodby”
3. *Kul bint bitfakir ?inu ha-l-gabiyih /hi raH tinJaH
Every girl think.3sf that this-the-idiot /she will success 3sf
*“Every girl thinks that she/the idiot will pass”
4. kul zalamih zςilt-u li ?annu ha-l-lawħ / hu raħ bidun
every man upset.1sg because this-the-idiot/he went without
ma yiguul maς salamih
Neg saying goodby
“Every man, I was upset because the idiot / he went without saying goodby”
2. Second asymmetry: reconstruction
Weak resumption always allows for a reconstructed reading of its antecedent, and this even in
strong island contexts (see (5)). But surprisingly, the availability of reconstruction within a
strong island vanishes whenever strong resumption is at stake (see (6)).
5.√ [ţalib-[ha]i l-kassoul]j ma ziςlat [ wala mςallmeh ]i la?annuh l-mudiirah
student-her the-bad Neg upset.3sf no teacher because the-principal
kaħ∫at – uhj / kaħ∫at – uhj huj mn l- madrase
expelled.3sf –CL / expelled.3sf –CL he from the-school
“Her bad student, no teacher was upset because the principal expelled him from
school.”

6. *[ţalib - [ha]i l-kassul]j ma ħakjan maς [QP wala mςalmih ]i
student- her -the bad Neg talked,1pl with no teacher
gabl ma huj /ha-l- ġabij yesal
before he / the-idiot.3sm arrive.3sm
“Heri bad studentj, we didn’t talk to any teacheri before hej / this idiotj arrived.”
3. Our main goal:
The main goal of the talk will be to propose an analysis that could relate these two
asymmetries concerning the distinction between weak resumption (WR) and strong
resumption (SR). More precisely, we will argue for the following:
• Following Elbourne (2002) among others, a covariant/distributive reading of a pronoun
arises either from a bound variable interpretation, or an e-type interpretation of that entity.
• Partially following Noguchi (1997), functional items (i.e. weak pronouns) license a bound
variable or an e-type interpretation whereas lexical ones (i.e. strong pronouns and epithets)
can only get an e-type interpretation.
We will show how such an approach to quantificational variability can account for a wide
range of properties of weak, strong pronouns or epithets, and notably the following:
• covariant reading of strong pronouns or epithets restricted to island contexts;
• reconstruction available within strong islands with WR, but not with SR.
References
Aoun J. and Benmamoun E. (1998) Minimality, reconstruction, and PF movement. Linguistic
Inquiry 29:569-597.
Aoun J. and Choueiri L. (2000) Epithets. NaturalLanguage & Linguistic Theory 18:1-39.
Aoun J., Choueiri L. and Hornstein N. (2001) Resumption, movement and derivational
economy. Linguistic Inquiry 32:371-403.
Choueiri, Lina (2002) Issues in the syntax of resumption: Restrictive relatives in Lebanese
Arabic. PhD thesis, University of Southern California.
Elbourne, Paul (2002) Situations and individuals. PhD thesis, MIT.
Noguchi, Tohru (1997) Two types of pronouns and variable binding. Language 73-4:770-797.