Antecedent-based approach to binding in Icelandic and Faroese

Abstract

This paper examines the standard approach to long-distance reflexives within the Lexical-Functional Grammar framework. This approach defines the binding relation between a reflexive and its non-local antecedent by prescribing the type of syntactic elements which must and must not occur along the path from the reflexive to its antecedent. However, evidence from the Insular Scandinavian languages suggests that the binding relation should be expressed as positive and negative constraints on the path from the antecedent to the reflexive. In other words, I suggest that long-distance reflexives in Icelandic and Faroese are governed by outside-in functional uncertainty, not inside-out functional uncertainty, as is standardly assumed.