Modelling the ziji Blocking Effect and Constraining Bound Variable Derivations in MC-TAG with Delayed Locality

摘要

MC-TAG derivations using delayed locality (i.e. non set-local composition) have been used to model long distance binding in natural language. In this paper, I explore the possibility within Synchronous TAG that tree sets composing via delayed locality may have many possible syntactic derivations for a single semantic form. Using the Mandarin (Chinese) anaphor ziji as a test case, I show that the blocking effect which is described in other generative frameworks as a constraint on covert movement can be modelled as arising from constraints across possible derivation families for a given tree set. Further observing the interaction of ziji with other bound variables in the language, I propose that anti-locality effects in variable binding arise when a more specialized bound variable is available. This has consequences for the definition of a typology of bound variables.