Abstract
This paper discusses the role of traces and resumptive pronouns as triggers of functional/pair-list readings of Hebrew restrictive relative clauses. It is claimed that the type of sentence which embeds the relative clause affects the binding options inside it. A relative clause formed of a chain that ends in a trace triggers functional/pair-list readings regardless of the type of sentence which embeds the relative clause. On the other hand, a relative clause formed of a chain that ends in a pronoun needs to be embedded in an equative sentence in order to trigger such readings. This effect is argued to follow from the constraints which govern resumptive pronouns, one of which being that they require salient discourse antecedents. It is also shown that previous analyses which attempt to derive the pronoun/trace alternation from syntactic principles alone fail to account for the equative/non-equative contrast.
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Sharvit, Y. Resumptive Pronouns in Relative Clauses. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 17, 587–612 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006226031821
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006226031821