A (Covert) Long Distance Anaphor in English

The empirical focus of this paper is the distribution of strict and sloppy interpretations of reflexive pronouns in comparative stripping. We present a set of new data which indicates that strict readings of reflexives in comparative stripping, while possible, are blocked when the subject of the comparative clause is a name or pronoun. We then show that the pattern of strict readings in comparatives mirrors the pattern of long-distance anaphora in Chinese; in particular, the contexts in which strict readings are impossible are strikingly similar to the environments in which long-distance anaphora is blocked. We therefore propose that strict readings of reflexives in comparatives involve binding of a long-distance anaphor from the subject position of the matrix clause. We explain the apparent absence of a such an object in English by claiming that although the long-distance anaphor is a well-formed syntactic object, it has no morphological instantiation, and so cannot appear in a PF-representation without violating Full Interpretation. Such an object can appear in an elided constituent, however, because deletion of syntactic material in ellipsis bypasses the need for morphological realization.